Insulin Therapy

Insulin therapy treats diabetes mellitus by replacing the hormone insulin, which the body can no longer produce or use effectively. A team at the University of Toronto, physiologist John Macleod, surgeon Frederick Banting, medical student Charles Best and biochemist James Collip, isolated and purified insulin from animal pancreases over the course of 1921 and early 1922. Banting and Macleod alone received the 1923 Nobel Prize; Banting judged the choice of Macleod over Best unjust and split his own prize money with Best, and Macleod in turn split his with Collip, an implicit acknowledgment by both laureates that the official credit was too narrow. This atlas describes the history of the treatment and is not medical advice.