Frederick Banting

Before insulin, type 1 diabetes was usually a slow death sentence. Children were placed on starvation diets because doctors had no reliable way to replace what their bodies could not produce. Frederick Banting entered that world as a young Canadian physician with an idea, a borrowed laboratory, and very little margin for failure.

In 1921, at the University of Toronto, Banting worked with Charles Best under J.J.R. Macleod's direction. Their experiments led to pancreatic extracts that could control blood sugar. James Collip then helped purify the extract for human treatment. In January 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 13-year-old patient in Toronto, became one of the first people treated with insulin.

Persistence Over Polished Theory

Banting was not a specialist in diabetes or endocrinology; he was a surgeon with a restless mind. His breakthrough came from a simple, dogged observation while preparing a lecture. Unlike the established researchers of his day, he was willing to chase a high-risk hypothesis through a humid Toronto summer in a workspace many would have found inadequate.

The result was not just a medical advance. It was a before-and-after moment in human survival. A condition once managed by hunger and waiting could now be treated. Banting famously shared his Nobel Prize money with Best, a gesture that reflected the collaborative—if sometimes fractious—reality of the discovery.