1.5
Thousands of diabetics owe their lives to Banting, a largely 
self-trained scientist. Before insulin treatment became 
available, diabetes killed the young and shortened the life of 
the elderly. The existence of insulin and its origin in the 
pancreas (which also produces digestive ferments) was 
deduced more than 20 years before, but all attempts to 
isolate it had failed. Banting had a patient in whom disease 
had destroyed the digestive part of the gland, yet diabetes 
did not follow. This suggested that previous attempts to 
extract insulin had failed because, in the process, digestive 
ferments had destroyed the insulin. His experiments showed 
this to be correct, and from his findings other scientists 
devised the modern process which extracts insulin in large 
quantities. Banting's ability to see the point others had 
overlooked was characteristic
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2.2
The insulin treatment for diabetes was the result of 
experiments in which Banting worked in collaboration with 
the late Dr. J.R. Macleod and Dr. C.H. Best.  Banting began his 
research on the internal secretion of the pancreas at Toronto 
University on May 16, 1921, and the new treatment was 
described in The Times on November 17, 1922.  The 
discovery was no sudden or accidental revelation.  It had 
been known during many years that the so-called island 
tissue of the pancreas exerted a profound influence on the 
sugar content of the blood, and, further, that in cases of 
diabetes the island tissue was usually in a state of weakness 
or degeneration.  

Many attempts had been made to supply pancreatic extracts 
to diabetic patients, but these attempts failed because, as is 
now recognized, the island tissue had not been obtained in a 
condition of enough potency to exert its influence.  Banting's 
success was due to the method he adopted whereby island 
tissue was made available in such potency as to effect the 
necessary control of the sugar content of the blood.  Insulin 
is, in fact, an extract of island tissue in as pure a state as can 
be obtained, that is to say, as completely free as possible 
from other elements present in the pancreas.  

It represents, therefore, the coping-stone of an arch built in 
long years by many hundreds of workers, each of whom 
contributed his quota of knowledge.  It has proved to be one 
of the most important medical discoveries, for by the use of 
insulin many lives have been saved and many others 
prolonged, while much disability has been prevented. 
  
Frederick Grant Banting was born at Alliston, Ontario on 
November 4 1891, and was educated at Alliston High School 
and at Toronto University.  Before his career had really 
begun the last War broke out, and joining up he served in 
Canada, England, and France during the years 1915 to 1919.  
He saw a good deal of fighting, was wounded in the arm at 
Cambrai, and for his gallantry was awarded the M. C.  Later 
he was invalided to England suffering with blood poisoning.  
Before he left England he became M. R. C. S and he returned 
to Canada in 1919 to become resident surgeon at the Hospital 
for Sick Children, Toronto.  The next year he left the hospital 
to take up private practice at London, Ontario, at the same 
time undertaking the work of a part-time assistant in 
physiology at the Western University in the town.  The 
turning point in his career came in May, 1921, when he 
returned to Toronto University to commence his research on 
the internal secretion of the pancreas.  He combined with his 
research work the lectureship in pharmacology in the 
university from 1921 to 1922, and after that was senior 
demonstrator, Department of Medicine until he was 
appointed in 1923 Professor of Medical Research, which Chair 
he held until his death. 
  
Many honours came to him.  He was awarded the Starr Gold 
Medal for the doctorate, University of Toronto, in 1922; the 
Nobel Prize for Medicine (with DR.  J.  R.  Macleod) in 1923; 
the Scott Medal in 1924; the Fellowship of the Royal Society 
of Canada in 1926; the Cameron Prize (Edinburgh) in 1927; 
the Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society of Canada in 1931; the 
Apothecaries' Medal (London) in 1934; and the F. N. G. Starr 
Gold Medal (Canadian Medical Association) in 1936, and the 
Royal College of Surgeons made him an honorary Fellow in 
1930; he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1935; 
and the Royal College of Physicians made him an honorary in 
1936.  He became D. Sc. (Toronto), 1923 LL. D.  (Queen's), 
1923; Sc. D.  (Yale).  1924; LL. D.  (University of Western 
Ontario), 1924; and D. Sc. (McGill), 1936.  In 1934 he was 
created K. B. E. 
  
It was not until 1925 that Banting went to Stockholm to 
receive the Nobel Prize, and when he went he was asked to 
deliver the Nobel Lecture, the first Canadian to be so 
honoured.  Banting always felt that an injustice had been 
done to Dr.  Best because he had not also been recognized by 
the Nobel Prize committee, and he therefore shared with Dr.  
Best his half of the Nobel Prize.  Banting was naturally 
anxious that his work should be carried on, and for that 
purpose he established a medical research foundation, which 
was later to be known by his name.  Patients who had 
derived benefit from the insulin treatment were among the 
most generous donors to the fund and their gifts totalled 
nearly $4, 500.  Medical care of the Eskimo was another 
project in which Banting took great interest.  He went to the 
Arctic to see if it were possible to set up hospital for the 
treatment of the Eskimo, but it was found that no suitable 
scheme could be formulated owing to the wandering life led 
by those people.  While in the Arctic Banting painted a 
number of pictures which evoked favourable comment, for 
he was a talented artist. 
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2.3
The fifteen-year-old daughter of Mr. Hughes, the United 
States Secretary of State, is in hospital in Toronto undergoing 
treatment for diabetes by Dr.  F.G. Banting, who is the 
originator of the insulin treatment. 
  
For over a year Dr.  Banting, with several associates, has been 
engaged in research work in connexion with diabetes.  It is 
apparently agreed among leading physicians in Canada and 
the United States that the treatment has already prolonged 
the lives of many sufferers and been effectual as a 
preventive in many cases.  The remedy is being 
manufactured at the Connaught Laboratory, Toronto, and at 
Indianapolis, under the direction of the Medical Faculty of 
the University of Toronto.  It is understood that in Great 
Britain it is under the control of the Royal College of 
Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons. 
  
It has long been known that removal of the pancreas, an 
abdominal gland, causes diabetes.  Yet extracts of this gland 
failed to relieve it.  Later work showed that the pancreas has 
a double function.  It casts into the bowel ferments which 
maintain digestion; but it also casts into the blood stream, 
directly, an "internal secretion. "  It is this latter which is the 
important factor in connexion with diabetes. 
  
Banting and his co-workers conceived the idea of closing up 
in an animal the tube connecting the pancreas with the bowel 
and so causing the gland to lose one of its functions and 
augment the other.  Preparations of this one-function gland 
were subsequently used and injected into diabetic dogs, 
which there-upon rapidly improved.  The product thus 
obtained is termed "insulin, " because it is derived from the 
"island tissue" of the pancreas. 
  
Attempts were made later to use the preparation in cases of 
human diabetes, and the Lancet reports that an improvement 
has been noted.  The extract is given directly into a vein.  
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2.5
Limited testing of insulin produced by genetic engineering, or 
the procedure known as recombinant DNA, is in progress at 
Guy's Hospital, London.  It is the first use in people of a 
medicinal preparation made by genetic manipulation. 
  
The tests on healthy volunteers to check the quality of the 
insulin, are being made with a limited amount of this novel 
source of human insulin obtained from laboratory-scale 
production. 
  
But the company involved in the manufacturing, Eli Lilley, is 
building plants at Speke, near Liverpool, and at Indianapolis, 
in the United States, costing a total of $18m for commercial 
operation.  The first batches needed for clinical trials should 
be ready from Speke in a few months. 
  
Although the new substance is called human insulin because 
it is identical in biological and chemical characteristics with 
that generated by the human pancreas, the compound is 
synthesized by making the type of genes that control the 
production of insulin in the laboratory. 
  
These man-made genes are then spliced by biochemical 
methods into specially selected strains of bacteria, which 
then synthesize insulin. 
  
Professor Harry Keen, professor of human metabolism at 
Guy's Hospital, described the advantages of this biosynthetic 
insulin yesterday, when outlining plans for clinical trials to 
be approved by the Committee on the Safety of Medicines. 
  
The new method offers a more convenient source than the 
traditional one of processing large quantities of animal tissue 
to obtain bovine or porcine insulin. 
  
As those preparations are not identical with that produced 
by the body, the human insulin may provide the diabetic 
with a better control over regulating the sugar level in the 
blood. 
  
Professor Keen hopes that will reduce some of the side-
effects among older long-term diabetics.  He said blindness 
due to long-term complications was the largest cause of loss 
of sight among the registered blind in industrial countries. 
  
The first tests have been a comparison of the established 
purified animal type of insulin with the biosynthetic variety. 
  
The Eli Lilly company developed the first commercial 
production of insulin from animal pancreas glands in 1923, 
but forecasts of long range supplies of animal tissue suggest 
that a shortage of supplies is likely in about 20 years. 
  
The method of making the hormone is a more complicated 
procedure because human insulin consists of two chains of 
molecules, lying side-by-side and linked in a very specific 
way. 
  
In the biosynthesis, one microorganism is instructed to make 
chain A and another to create chain B.  After the material is 
extracted and purified, the two chains are carefully paired-
up to make the human type.