Began the experiments at the University of Toronto
J. J. R. Macleod
Professor who provided the laboratory and shared the 1923 Nobel Prize with Banting
James Collip
Biochemist who purified the extract
Plate 078
1921–1922
Toronto, Canada
No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
Frederick Banting and Charles Best began experiments in Toronto in 1921. The first patient, Leonard Thompson, was treated in January 1922.
About credit
Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize in 1923; Banting shared his money with Best and Macleod with Collip. Credit among the team has been argued ever since.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before Insulin
A diagnosis of type 1 diabetes meant a starvation diet and death, often of children, within a year or two.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Banting and Best isolated extracts from dog pancreas that lowered blood sugar. Collip purified it for human use. Leonard Thompson, 14, improved after injections in 1922. Eli Lilly began mass production in 1923.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
Insulin, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
A hormone for sugar
Insulin lets cells take up sugar from blood. Without it, sugar builds up in the blood and cells starve.
A hormone for sugar
Replacement
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Lives
Children near death recovered.
Medicine
Opened the way to hormone and biologic drugs.
It turned a fatal disease into a manageable condition and became a model for hormone treatment.
V
Before and after
Life before and after Insulin
Before
Death within months.
After
A life with daily injections.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
VI
Its legacy
What came after
MHI 078
Insulin
Beyond the collection
Recombinant insulin
In 1978 human insulin was made in bacteria; sold from 1982.
Beyond the collection
Biotechnology
The first genetically engineered drug.
VII
Human stories
The people and the moments
The patent for one dollar
Banting, Best and Collip sold the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for one dollar each so that the treatment would be widely available.
Where accounts differ, this museum follows the documented record and says so.