In early January 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson lay dying in a hospital bed. He had diabetes mellitus.
The disease had been killing people, mostly children, for centuries. In the 1800s, with advances in chemistry, it was realized that it was connected with sugar in the body. For a number of decades, doctors believed it was an ailment of the stomach or liver.
However, in 1889, Oskar Minkowski and Josef von Mehring discovered that removing a dog’s pancreas immediately induced diabetic symptoms. Something within the pancreas seemed to be related to preventing the disease.
Researchers tried feeding pancreas to patients to no avail. Injections of pancreas and pancreas extract were similarly unsuccessful. But research into human physiology and metabolism was producing new results and in particular recognizing the role of hormones in regulating body chemistry. A German research, Paul Langerhans, discovered separate islets of cells within the pancreas and it was thought they might contain the long sought-after compound. The question became how to isolate the compound.
Thirty years later, a young Dr. Frederick Banting, a Canadian surgeon and physician, came up with a novel approach. Working during the summer of 1921 with Charles Best in John J.R. Macleod’s lab at the University of Toronto, the team came up with increasingly positive, if somewhat erratic, results. By mid-fall, Banting felt that he needed the help of a skilled biochemist and Dr. James B. Collip joined the team to work on stabilizing and purifying the extracted hormone.
Despite skepticism from colleagues treating diabetes, on January 11th, the team injected Thompson with their pancreatic extract. Everyone was disappointed when the test failed. However, over the next 12 days, the team worked to further purify the extracted hormone, removing contaminants from the medicine. On January 23rd, Thompson received another dose and this time it was successful. His blood and urinary sugars dropped to normal and his diabetic symptoms were alleviated.
Over the next few months, major advances were achieved. Other patients were treated. It was discovered that the frozen pancreas of a cow or pig would be a better source for the compound. Patents were filed.
On March 22nd, 1922, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Banting, Best, MacLeod, and Collip, announced their discovery of insulin and millions of lives have since been saved.
