Medicine
Frederick Banting
Physician, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1923 for discovering insulin
Born 1891 · Died 1941
Photo: Arthur Goss · Public domain
«Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.»
Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolated insulin in 1921, turning type 1 diabetes from a death sentence into a manageable condition within two years. He remains the youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Key achievements
- Co-discovered insulin with Charles Best, 1921
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923, at 32
- Sold the insulin patent to his university for one dollar
Universities
Toronto, Ontario
Took his medical degree in 1916 and returned to the university, where the insulin work was done in 1921.
Facts
- The idea came to him at two in the morning after reading a journal article, and he wrote it down in twenty-five words.
- The discoverers sold the patent to the university for one dollar each so that no company could control the price.
- The first patient treated was a fourteen-year-old boy who weighed 29 kilograms and was close to death; he recovered within days.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.