This month we celebrate World Diabetes Day on November 14,1 which is the birthday of Dr Frederick G. Banting, one of four key collaborators in the discovery of insulin. He pursued the idea that an important element in the pancreas could help save the lives of persons with type 1 diabetes: insulin. It took the other members his team—collaborators at of the University of Toronto— to isolate insulin from the pancreas and formulate it into a lifesaving clinical reality. All of this happened 100 years ago this November, when the researchers demonstrated that insulin extract reduced blood sugar in laboratory animals.1 Because they felt so strongly that this medical breakthrough had to be available to all, they sold the patent for 100 cents ($1) so insulin could be affordable for everyone who needed … read more