2022-12-16 18:57:13
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nobelprize_org
Before the discovery of insulin, people with diabetes didn’t live for long because there wasn’t much doctors could do for them. By 1920 scientists knew that diabetes was due to a lack of insulin formed in parts of the pancreas called islets, but attempts made to extract insulin from pancreatic cells had all failed.
However a surgeon called Frederick Banting suggested a different way to isolate insulin. He met with scientist John Macleod to formulate a plan.
Together Banting and his research assistant, Charles Best, began to experiment. In 1921 they successfully isolated insulin from a dog’s pancreas. The next step was to treat diabetes with their extract. Their experiments were first met with failure, but by November 1921 they had successfully kept a dog with diabetes with their insulin extract for 70 days. In December 1921, the three had biochemist James Collip join their team with the goal of purifying insulin extract and making it more concentrated.
In January 1922, the first person received an insulin injection. Fourteen-year-old Leonard Thompson's high blood sugar levels had dropped, but he still had high levels of ketones.
After Thompson's first injection, Collip worked to purify the insulin extract. Thompson received his second injection on January 23. This time, Thompson's blood sugar levels became near-normal.
In January 1923 Banting, Collip and Best received the American patents on insulin and its creation process. The three sold their patents to the University of Toronto for 1 USD.
According to Banting: “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.”
Eli Lilly become the first manufacturer to mass produce insulin and the first commercial supply of insulin was distributed in late 1923.
Banting and Macleod received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Banting split his half of the prize money with Best, and Macleod split the other half of the prize money with Collip.
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