Sir Frederick G. Banting is a Canadian physician-scientist and painter famous for the co-discovery of insulin. Banting and his team were the first to administer insulin to successfully treat patients living with diabetes. He won a Nobel Prize for his work and is the youngest Nobel laureate in Physiology/Medicine at age 32.

Banting grew up on a farm in Alliston, Ontario. Following his father’s footsteps, he studied theology to become a Christian minister. Due to his poor grades, his interests shifted and he transferred to medical school. Upon earning his degree, he joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps to serve in France during the First World War. In the 1918 Battle of Cambrai, he cared for wounded men for sixteen hours despite his own injuries. He was later awarded the Military Cross for heroism. Banting returned to Canada after the war to complete his surgical training in Toronto. He opened his own medical practice in London, Ontario and lectured part-time at the University of Western Ontario.

While preparing for a lecture, Banting had an idea that would change the lives of people living with diabetes, as well as medical research in Canada. He wrote down a plan to extract insulin from the pancreas for injection into patients to help them control their blood sugar. He was recommended to Dr. John J. R. MacLeod, a physiologist at the University of Toronto. While MacLeod was skeptical of Banting’s idea, he reluctantly offered him lab space and a summer research assistant, Charles Best. Over the summer of 1921, Banting and Best managed to isolate insulin from animal pancreases. They administered the extracted insulin into a dog without a pancreas and found that it was able to reduce blood sugar levels. When the results proved promising, MacLeod began to support Banting’s work and enlisted the help of Dr. James B. Collip, an accomplished biochemist, to help purify the extract of insulin. With Collip’s help, the insulin extract was refined and ready for clinical use. In 1922, insulin was injected in a 14-year-old boy with severe diabetes, Leonard Thompson. The purified insulin extract successfully treated the disease. Banting later sold the patent rights for insulin to the University of Toronto for $1 for production at the University’s Connaught Laboratories.

“Insulin belongs to the world, and not to me.”
- Sir Frederick Banting

The discovery of insulin was a major medical advancement by Banting, Best, Collip and MacLeod. However, there was animosity between the researchers. Banting felt that MacLeod was taking credit for the work. He also disputed with Collip who almost left the group during the purification process. In 1923, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Banting and MacLeod. Banting acknowledged Best for his major role in the discovery and split his award. MacLeod similarly split his award with Collip. Although credit for the breakthrough of insulin would be debated over years, Banting’s original hypothesis was the undoubted catalyst for the research. Banting’s legacy lives on as insulin remains the standard treatment for diabetes today.

Following his fame, Banting indulged in art. He became close friends with the Group of Seven, famous for painting Canadian landscapes, and particularly with a founding member, A. Y. Jackson. He would later accompany Jackson on many months-long sketching trips to paint landscapes like the Hudson Bay trading posts or rural Quebec. Until his untimely death in 1941, Banting was one of Canada’s best-known amateur painters.

In 1989, the Flame of Hope was lit by Queen Elizabeth to honour Banting. The flame serves as a reminder that insulin is a treatment but not a cure for diabetes. Until a cure is found, the flame will burn in London, Ontario outside the house where Banting noted his original idea.

— Written by Stephanie Tran