(1891-1941)

In the fall of 1920, Banting, a surgeon without research experience, read an article about the pancreas. Later that night, he jotted down his idea for an experimental procedure that would lead, in less than two years, to the miraculous recovery of the first diabetic patient experimentally treated with insulin.

Under the direction of J.R.R. Macleod, head of the department of Physiology at the University of Toronto, Banting and Charles Best, a graduate student, isolated insulin and, with the help of James Collip, purified it so that it could be tested on humans. The results were "unspeakably wonderful" for diabetics who were revived by insulin.

The 1923 Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded jointly to Banting and Macleod. Banting divided his share with Best; Macleod split his portion with Collip.