On this day in 1921, the insulin discovery by Canadian scientists Sir Frederick G. Banting and Charles H. Best marked a turning point in medical history. For the first time, diabetes was no longer an immediate death sentence, as insulin provided an effective treatment that saved millions of lives.
Working at the University of Toronto, Banting and Best, with biochemist James Collip and Professor J.J.R. Macleod, isolated insulin from animal pancreases and tested it on diabetic dogs. Their success paved the way for the first human treatment in 1922, when 14-year-old Leonard Thompson received an injection that dramatically improved his condition.
In the early years, insulin was derived from animal sources and was often impure, requiring frequent injections and careful dosing. Over the decades, improvements in extraction and purification methods, followed by the development of synthetic human insulin in the 1980s, revolutionised treatment.
Today, recombinant insulin and analogue formulations allow for more precise control of blood sugar. Technologies such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring have further improved quality of life for people with diabetes. While access remains uneven in parts of the world, insulin therapy is now widely available, and diabetes is no longer an immediate fatal diagnosis.
The insulin discovery anniversary is a reminder of how scientific innovation and persistence can reshape global health, turning what was once a hopeless prognosis into a manageable chronic condition for millions.
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