One hundred years ago, in 1922, a team of physicians and scientists at the University of Toronto were first to isolate/extract insulin and inject it into a human subject for the treatment of diabetes.
Physician Frederick Banting, medical student Charles Best, and physiologist John Macleod derived the insulin from animals. They then performed the first injection on a human—a 14 year old boy—in January 1922, with help from biochemist James Collip. The injection was successful, and the University of Toronto granted pharmaceutical companies license to produce insulin, free of royalties. By 1923, insulin was widely available across North America.
Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (they shared their winnings with Best and Collip).
Before the use of insulin, people with Type 1 diabetes typically died within one year of diagnosis/onset of symptoms.
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Penny Schnarrs
Virtual Communities Program Manager
Association of American Medical Colleges
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