2021 is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. It was one of the greatest Canadian discoveries in medicine and paved the way for a revolution in the management of diabetes worldwide.
For many years scientists believed that some kind of internal secretion of the pancreas was the key to preventing diabetes and controlling normal metabolism. No one could find it, until in the summer of 1921 a team at the University of Toronto began trying a new experimental approach suggested by Dr. Frederick Banting.
By the spring of 1922, the Toronto researchers — Banting, Charles Best, J.B. Collip and their supervisor, J.J.R. Macleod, were able to announce the discovery of insulin. In 1923, Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize for one of the most important, and most controversial, breakthroughs in modern medical history.
The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-discovery-of-insulin