1921 Insulin isolated in Toronto
This Day In History | General Interest
July 27
1921 Insulin isolated in Toronto
At the University of Toronto, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting
and Charles Best successfully isolate insulin–a hormone they believe
could prevent diabetes–for the first time. Within a year, the first
human sufferers of diabetes were receiving insulin treatments, and
countless lives were saved from what was previously regarded as a
fatal disease.
Diabetes has been recognized as a distinct medical condition for more
than 3,000 years, but its exact cause was a mystery until the 20th
century. By the early 1920s, many researchers strongly suspected that
diabetes was caused by a malfunction in the digestive system related
to the pancreas gland, a small organ that sits on top of the liver. At
that time, the only way to treat the fatal disease was through a diet
low in carbohydrates and sugar and high in fat and protein. Instead of
dying shortly after diagnosis, this diet allowed diabetics to
live–for about a year.
A breakthrough came at the University of Toronto in the summer of
1921, when Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully
isolated insulin from canine test subjects, produced diabetic symptoms
in the animals, and then began a program of insulin injections that
returned the dogs to normalcy. On November 14, the discovery was
announced to the world.
Two months later, with the support of J.J.R. MacLeod of the University
of Toronto, the two scientists began preparations for an insulin
treatment of a human subject. Enlisting the aid of biochemist J.B.
Collip, they were able to extract a reasonably pure formula of insulin
from the pancreases of cattle from slaughterhouses. On January 23,
1921, they began treating 14-year-old Leonard Thompson with insulin
injections. The diabetic teenager improved dramatically, and the
University of Toronto immediately gave pharmaceutical companies
license to produce insulin, free of royalties. By 1923, insulin had
become widely available, and Banting and Macleod were awarded the
Nobel Prize in medicine.
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