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Sir Frederick Grant Banting, co-discoverer of INSULIN (b at Alliston, Ont 14 Nov 1891; d near Musgrave Harbour, Nfld 21 Feb 1941). Youngest of 6 children of a middle-class farm family, Fred Banting persevered through high school, failed first year in arts at University of Toronto and then enrolled in medicine. He graduated in 1916 with above average grades, served as a medical officer in France, where he was wounded in action and decorated for valour, and in 1919-20 completed his training as an orthopedic surgeon. In July 1920 he began the practice of medicine in London, Ontario.
On the night of 31 October 1920, after reading a routine article in a medical journal, Banting wrote down an idea for research aimed at isolating the long-sought internal secretion of the pancreas. He received support for his proposed research at U of T, where he began work on 17 May 1921 under the direction of J.J.R. MACLEOD and assisted by C.H. BEST. Banting's and Best's experiments were crudely conducted and did not substantiate Banting's idea, which was physiologically incorrect. But their apparently favourable results encouraged greater efforts, which culminated in the winter of 1921-22 in the discovery of insulin by a team of researchers that included Macleod, Banting, J.B. COLLIP and Best. Insulin was immediately and spectacularly effective as a lifesaving therapy for DIABETES MELLITUS. Banting was hailed as the principal discoverer of insulin because his idea had launched the research, because of his prominence in the early use of insulin, and because he and his friends carried on a campaign to discredit his senior collaborators, Macleod and Collip, with whom he was temperamentally incompatible. On learning that he was to share the 1923 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Macleod, Banting gave half his prize money to Best. He was awarded a life annuity by the federal government, appointed Canada's first professor of medical research at U of T and knighted in 1934. Banting supervised important research into silicosis and problems in aviation medicine before his death on a flight to England in 1941 to look into the state of medical research there. But his own research was trivial, for he was not in fact a skilled or well-trained scientist. The burden of his fame weighed heavily on an insecure but determined man, leading to a turbulent personal life and considerable unhappiness. He became an accomplished amateur painter, whose work strongly reflects the influence of his friend and sketching companion, A.Y. JACKSON. He was survived by his second wife and by a son from his first marriage. In several magazine polls during his lifetime, he was judged the most famous living Canadian.
 Banting, FrederickFrederick Banting was the codeveloper of insulin and shared Canada's first Nobel Prize (artwork by Irma Coucill).
 Best and BantingCharles Best (left) and Frederick Banting, with a dog used in their experiments to isolate insulin (courtesy Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, U of T).
Author
MICHAEL BLISS
Suggested Reading
Michael Bliss, Banting: A Biography (1984) and The Discovery of Insulin (1982).
Links to Other Sites
Frederick Banting and John Macleod
Profiles of Frederick Banting and John Macleod, winners the Nobel Prize in medicine for 1923. The official website of the Nobel Foundation.
Frederick Banting
A brief autobiography by Dr. Frederick Banting from the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.
Banting Museum and Education Centre
About the Banting Museum and the life and work of Dr. Frederick Banting. From the Canadian Diabetes Association.
The Banting Digital Library
The Banting Digital Library website Features many of Sir Frederick Banting’s paintings, photographs, and documents. From the New Tecumseth Public Library in Ontario.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada
An authoritative information source about Type I and Type II diabetes. Check out the excellent dietary tips and other recommendations for a healthy lifestyle. Also features a history of diabetes research and a summary of the latest research initiatives.
Canadian Heroes in Fact and Fiction
This site focues on notable historical Canadian figures (real and fictional). Includes individual profiles, bibliographies and Internet links. From Library and Archives Canada.
The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin
An outstanding online exhibit about Canada’s leading role in the discovery and development of insulin as a treatment for diabetes. This digitalized collection of original archival material features laboratory notebooks and charts, correspondence, published papers, photographs, awards, scrapbooks and much more. From the University of Toronto Libraries.
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