Frederick Grant Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin, was born his family’s farm located near the village of Alliston, Ontario on November 14, 1891. Alliston today is part of the Town of New Tecumseth and is located Northwest of Toronto Ontario. Commonly called Fred he is a community hero as he went on to be the key, co-discoverer of Insulin. It was his idea that made it work.
In 1921 Frederick Banting, now a Canadian doctor and his assistant, Charles Best, a research student, succeeded in isolating the hormone, Insulin. Their research work was conducted at the University of Toronto. The University provided a lab and some test dogs, but Banting and Best were not compensated for their research work. Financial support for their research came from Fred’s family and their productive farm. They called their discovery, or that mysterious something, secreted by the pancreas, Isletin. It was later named Insulin.
In 1920, Banting came up with his idea and his unwavering interest in testing it, while preparing for a lecture he was to give the next day on the pancreas. He read a paper about the relationship between the pancreas and diabetes. Fred also watched on as a close friend and farm neighbour became diabetic and died. Jennie Victoria Jorden, wasted away and died in 1914, as all diabetics did at the time. He and his family were disturbed about this and he seldom talked about the young girl and her family. The incident, however, was the seed of his thoughts and fueled his drive to press on with his research despite many obstacles.
In 1921, it was an accepted fact that diabetes was caused by some disorder of the pancreas that kept the body from making use of sugar. Dr. Banting decided that if he tied off the pancreatic duct in dogs, he could isolate the hormone causing the disorder. He guessed that digestive secretions from the pancreas were destroying the illusive hormone they called Isletin.
Frederick Grant Banting is born on his family's farm near the village of Alliston, Ontario.
Banting watches his close friend and neighbour, Jennie Victoria Jorden, pass away from diabetes.
After reading a paper on the relationship between the pancreas and diabetes, Banting comes up with his idea to isolate the hormone causing diabetes.
Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, begin experimenting on dogs at the University of Toronto.
After some experiments on laboratory dogs, Banting and Best prepared a solution containing Isletin, by extracting it from a dog’s pancreas, which they then injected into the veins of a diabetic dog, and within a few hours the dog was alert and walking. Based on Fred’s farm experience, the discoverers moved on to extracting Insulin from fetal calf pancreas obtained from an abattoir in Toronto. They started a longevity test on Marjorie, test dog number 33. Marjorie survived for 72 days on Isletin, proving that Banting’s idea was working. Soon they were able to purify these extracts, created using cattle pancreas, in sufficient quantities to inject and treat diabetic patients.
At Toronto’s General Hospital, 14-year-old diabetic Leonard Thompson became on January 11, 1922, the first recorded person to be treated with Banting and Best’s insulin, derived from their fetal calf pancreas extract. Thompson showed a small improvement. Biochemist James Collip, who was helping Banting and Best, worked day and night to improve the extract. A second dose was injected twelve days later, which was completely successful in eliminating glycosuria, a telltale sign of diabetes.
History now shows that Isletin made by Banting and Best showed positive results in a surreptitious test conducted on Dr. Joseph Gilchrist, a family friend from Alliston in December 1921.
Leonard Thompson was the first recorded person to be treated with Banting & Best's insulin.
After experimenting on dogs, Banting & Best were able to isolate the hormone they called Isletin. Moving on to cattle, they were able to extract the hormone in sufficient quantities for injecting into diabetic patients.
At Toronto's General Hospital, 14-year-old diabetic Leonard Thompson became the first recorded person to be treated with Banting and Best’s insulin.
Every year on Banting's Birthday, we celebrate World Diabetes Day in his honour.
What followed was a mass of diabetics all wanting Insulin. It was either Insulin or certain death. Some of the early work did not scale well to large production. Early records show that Insulin was first considered a cure. Fred Banting pointed out that Insulin is not a cure. That is still the case 100 years later. However, with a lot of work production and purity and delivery methods have improved. Now it is well known that insulin is not a cure and although a lot of work is going on to find a cure there is still nothing better than Insulin. It is a treatment and if diabetes is not managed correctly, a score of secondary health issues prevail.
Banting was recognized by numerous awards and honors. The most important is World Diabetes Day, celebrated each year on his birthday on November 14, 1891.
P.O. Box 137, Station Main,
Alliston, Ontario,
Canada
L9R 1T9
