Frederick G. Banting and John J.R. Macleod’s Nobel-winning discovery of insulin

Frederick G. Banting and John J.R. Macleod were awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of insulin, a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels. Their work helped establish insulin as a treatment for diabetes, a disease that, in its severe forms, had often been fatal before insulin therapy became available.

The prize was shared equally. Banting and Macleod were recognised “for the discovery of insulin”. The award acknowledged research conducted at the University of Toronto in the early 1920s, when investigators developed pancreatic extracts that could lower blood sugar in diabetic animals and subsequently demonstrated their therapeutic potential in humans. Charles Best, who worked with Banting, and biochemist James Collip, who helped purify insulin for clinical use, also made important contributions to this work.