U of T scientists Drs. Frederick Banting, Charles Best and James Collip are to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio this spring. Their research on insulin in the 1920’s saved, and still saves, millions of lives all over the world every year.
Banting was responsible for the discovery of insulin, the key to diabetes. The idea came to him when he was preparing for one of his medical demonstrations at the University of Western Ontario. He hypothesized that the pancreas contains an anti-diabetic substance. Western did not have the resources required for Banting’s research, so he was given laboratory space and equipment at U of T by J.J.R. Macleod.
Assisted by Best, who had just graduated from U of T, he performed experiments on dogs to test his hypothesis. They found that if the pancreas was removed from a dog, the animal would become diabetic. Thus, the pancreas did contain the substance that prevented diabetes, by keeping blood glucose levels low. The substance was later called “insulin.” When an extract of a normal dog’s pancreas was injected into a diabetic dog, the condition of the latter would improve.
This was a major discovery, but could not yet be put to clinical use. The extracted pancreas caused inflammation at the place of injection. Also, it took weeks to prepare the extract. Collip, a biochemist, joined the two scientists in their work. He extracted insulin from the pancreas and purified it, so it could be used for treating diabetes in humans. Like Banting and Best, Collip received his education at U of T. In 1922 insulin injections became available to the public.
How did these three scientists achieve something that completely changed the lives of diabetics? What does it take to be a great scientist?
Bob Banting, the great nephew of F. Banting, helped to answer some of these questions. He said that his great uncle “was a hardworking, creative Canadian.” He continued, “An inventor must follow untravelled paths, work outside the box, and believe that there will always be a positive outcome from all his or her work. This is what Banting did.
“For creative, hard-working students with average academic skills, Fred Banting’s success story offers hope that if they follow their passions and believe that they will succeed, then success will follow no matter what obstacles get in the way. This may sound a little trite, but believe it or not this was Fred’s story. He never gave up. He was not paid, and he had to sell his car to cover some costs. His family loaned him a lot of money. Would this happen today?…Probably not.”
F. Banting was an artist as well as a scientist-he painted with A.Y. Jackson, of the Group of Seven. His other hobbies included wood carving and reading Canadian books. The medical tradition carries on in the family; many of the Bantings are teachers and doctors.
Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin in 1923. Although Collip and Best were not recognized by the Nobel committee, Banting and Macleod shared the prize money with them.
The induction ceremony to the Hall of Fame will be held on May 1. Among the twenty inductees of 2004, fifteen are American, one is French, and one is German. The National Inventors Hall of Fame honours scientists whose achievements have improved our lives.
