When looking for pretty stamps at the post office this spring I picked up some celebrating the centenary of the discovery of insulin — a life-saving Canadian discovery!

Today, in reading about the discovery of insulin in The Canadian Encyclopedia I came across this statement:

“Years of propaganda, involving extensive distortion of history, established in the popular mind, especially in Canada, the view that insulin had been discovered by Banting and Best. Macleod and Collip became forgotten men.”

So let’s take a look at the cast of characters involved in the discovery of insulin and the subsequent saving of millions of lives.

Oskar Minkowski and Josef von Mehring

For centuries, diabetes was known but not understood. Perhaps a liver or stomach disorder caused the body’s inability to process carbohydrates? In 1889 German researchers Oskar Minkowski and Josef von Mehring made the groundbreaking discovery that something about the pancreas prevented diabetes.

Paul Langerhans

Another German researcher discovered a system of cells in the pancreas, now known as the islets of Langerhans. Maybe they were the source of an internal secretion?

Georg Zuelzer, E.L. Scott, Israel Kleiner, and N.C. Paulesco

Scientists in Germany, the United States, and Romania all made promising discoveries, but their pancreatic extracts worked erratically. By 1920 the question was, is the search for a pancreatic secretion even a move in the right direction?

Frederick Banting

Banting was a young doctor with a practice in London, Ontario, who also taught part-time at the University of Western Ontario. While preparing a lecture on the pancreas he came up with a theory that the elusive internal secretion was being destroyed by the pancreas’s external secretion (digestive juices). Could he come up with a way to isolate it?

John J.R. MacLeod

When Banting took his idea to the University of Toronto (his alma mater) in the summer of 1921, renowned physiologist John J.R. Macleod allowed him to use his lab, research animals (dogs), and student assistants. While Macleod was on holiday in Scotland, what would Banting come up with?

Charles Best

Best was the medical student who won a coin toss and became the first student to help Banting with his research. Sparing the details, which are beyond my understanding, Banting and Best conducted pancreatic surgeries on dogs and injected extracts into other dogs. Banting was enthusiastic about the results, but on his return Macleod was more critical. It turned out that Banting’s early idea (duct-litigation) was unecessary, but they made progress without it. Now who would help them refine the pancreatic extract so it would work consistently?

James Collip

James Collip, a biochemist from the University of Alberta who was spending some time in Toronto, was added to the research team. Even with Collip’s help improving the pancreatic extracts, the team’s presentation to the American Physiological Society underwhelmed the panel of diabetologists. However, it turned out Collip had managed to improve the extraction process to remove toxic contaminents, for in January 1922 the team tested their extract on Leonard Thompson, a 13-year-old boy on the brink of death. The second injection they gave him had immediate success. Was it time to share their findings with a wider audience?

W.R. Campbell, A.A. Fletcher, and E.C. Noble

The research team published a preliminary report in March 1922. In May Macleod delivered a paper, “The Effects Produced on Diabetes by Extracts of Pancreas,” in which the term “insulin” was first used. The other authors of the paper were Banting, Best, Collip, W.R. Campbell, A.A. Fletcher, and E.C. Noble. Campbell and Fletcher were clinicians who administered the extract to patients and Noble was another physiologist. Now what?

Peter Moloney

That same spring chemist Peter Moloney joined the team. His process for purifying insulin enabled it to be created in large quantities. By the end of 1923 manufacturers made insulin available to diabetics around the world.

The Nobel Prize

Frederick Banting believed that he and Best, in their dog experiments of 1921, had discovered insulin. “Among experienced scientists there was more support for the view that Banting and Best’s somewhat fumbling researches would not have reached the goal without the contributions of both Macleod and Collip — along with other workers, such as those who had made recent crucial advances in the ability to measure and track changes in blood sugar levels.” Thus the Nobel Committee awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize to Banting and Macleod. Banting immediately shared his prize money with Best and Macleod divided his with Collip.

Banting’s and Best’s admirers managed to promote their heroes to such an extent that Macleod and Collip were overshadowed in the public eye. However, scientsists and medical historians recognize their essential contributions.

In the description of the Canada Post insulin stamp we read: “Insulin was discovered in 1921 by Frederick Banting, Charles Best, James Collip and John Macleod at the University of Toronto. For their work, Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; they chose to share the prize money with Best and Collip. In 1934, Banting was knighted, becoming Sir Frederick Banting.”

What I learned from The Canadian Encyclopedia is that medical discoveries can involve a whole host of people over a substantial amount of time. Did you learn something different about the discovery of insulin? I’d love to hear!