Tommy Gunovich, Age 1.1, Of Cleveland, Ohio, for his question:
Who discovered insulin?
In 1923, the nobel prize for medicine was awarded to two canadian doctors. Two years earlier they had discovered insulin, the cause and the cure of the dread distase, diabetts mellitus. The two men were eager to share their honors with two others who had worked with them on the lift saving project.
In 1920, the lingering disease known as diabetes mellitus claimed thousands of lives around the world. And so it had been for centuries. A patient with this disease wasted away, and no doctor could save him. His body was unable to convert sugar into energy, and the unused sugar passed out as waste through the kidneys.
In the 1800s, scientists were probing the role of the pancreas in the digestive process. This pinkish yellow gland, shaped like a six or eight inch cucumber, lies crosswise at the back of the stomach. In 1869, Paul Langerhans of germany found small islands of glandular tissue in the pancreas. In 1890, dr. Naunyn, also of germany, found that diabetes is a disease of the islands of langerhans in the pancreas.
Medical scientists soon learned that thebe glandular islands product a hormone which the body needs to convert sugar into energy. But no one could capture this hormone. Then, in 1921, a young doctor of London, Ontario, thought he knew how. It was summertime, and he asked permission to test his idea in a laboratory at the University of Toronto.
He was Fredrick Grant Banting, age 30, and his co worker was Charles Herbert Best, a 22 year old medical student from maine. Dr. J.J. Maeleod of the university worked with them on their project, and another co worker was James Bertram Collip. Banting’s idea:was successful, and the hormone which they named insulin was isolated from the pancreas of a dog.
In 1923, when banting arid macleod were awarded the nobel prize for medicine, insulin from cattle was being produced in quantities. Banting shared his honors with young Charles Best, and Macleod shared his honors with their co worker, James Collip. Working together, these men mastered an age old killer, and their work shed new light on the role of the pancreas in the digestive system.
Some reference books give banting, others give banting and best as the discoverers of insulin. But the four scientists themselves felt that the job was done by teamwork. They also know that many experts in the past had gethered scraps of information about the pancreas and that their work would have been impossible without this basic information.