This review, in addition to updating the growing list of type 1 diabetes-relevant gene therapies, offers an outline of short-term objectives that can readily be met to move, at least, adenoviral and adeno-associated viral-based protocols into the clinic, first as a means of facilitating islet allografts as well as platforms with which to introduce immunoregulatory transgenes. A wide array of genes have been tested to restore insulin production, to drive the differentiation of insulin-producing progenitors, and to confer immunosuppression in an antigen-and tissue-restricted manner.