On this day in 1921 the Insulin A hormone was successfully isolated for the first time by Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Best.
Best and Banting.
Their discovery, with Banting in the lead, involved the use of dogs, which they gave diabetes and then reversed, confirming their discovery. They didn't announce it until later that Fall.
Banting would receive a Nobel Prize in 1923 at which time he was 32 years old, still the youngest recipient in the medical category. Canada granted Banting a lifetime annuity to continue his studies and he was knighted in 1932.
Banting's Nobel Prize was shared with J. J. R. Macleod who ovesaw his work as he had no training in physicology. Macleod assigned James Collip, a biochemist to the project. Interstingly, the team did not get along and Banting and Macleod were at odds over it as it went along, with Macleod skeptical of the project. The Nobel Prize was controversial, and Banting somewhat discounted Macleod's role, which in later years was found to be greater than it was supposed at the time.
Both me felt that their colleagues were unfairly omitted. Banting shared half of his prize money with Best, and Macleod shared half with Collip.
Banting went on to a notable and sometimes controversial publich career, engaging in a public dispute with the Hudson's Bay Company over the treatment of Canadian natives. He died in an airplane accident in 1941, at which time he was working in the field of aviation medicine.
Best went on to a long career in medicine. Macleod returned to Scotland as a professor and died in 1935 at age 58. His reputation did not recover during his lifetime and was tarnishes by both Best and Banting, but it has since recovered. Collip continued on in a long career.
On the same day Japan agreed to attend disarmament talks in the United States.
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