Dr. Frederick Banting, a Canadian surgeon and Charles
Best, a medical student.
Insulin was discovered in 1921 by Frederick Banting and Charles
Best at the University of Toronto. They worked to isolate an
extract from a dog’s pancreas that could lower blood sugar
in other diabetic dogs.
Their discovery, initially a "thick brown muck," proved to be a groundbreaking treatment for diabetes.
On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became
the first person to receive an injection of the hormone insulin
for Type-1 diabetes—a disease that for millennia had been
considered a death sentence for anyone who developed it.
The breakthrough would be one of the most consequential in
medical history, saving millions of lives.
Canadian scientists Frederick Banting (right) and Charles
Best circa 1924, three years after they successfully isolated insulin for the first time.
Laboratory on the University of Toronto campus where
Banting and Best carried out some of their research on
insulin.
