Our latest #HeritageMinute takes us back 100 years, when Banting, Best, Collip, and Macleod were working to find a treatment for diabetes. 60 seconds go by fast, so we’re outlining in this thread the chain of events that led to the discovery of insulin. ⬇️ 
December 7, 1920 – Frederick Banting meets Dr. John J. R. Macleod, renowned head of physiology at the University of Toronto, to speak about his new idea to extract internal secretions of the pancreas – something that had never been done before.
May 17, 1921 – Banting begins his experiments at @UofT. Though Macleod was skeptical, he had offered Banting lab space, dogs to work on and the services of a student assistant for the summer. Charles Best, one of Macleod’s fourth-year students, wins the position via a coin toss.
December 2, 1921 – The 13-year-old Leonard Thompson is admitted to Toronto General Hospital on the brink of death from diabetes.
December 12, 1921 – Macleod invites Dr. James Bertram Collip to join the research team. As a biochemist, Collip had the skills and knowledge needed to further purify the pancreatic extract.
January 11, 1922 – The team's pancreatic extract is tested on a human subject, Leonard Thompson, for the first time. Leonard Thompson develops abscesses at the site of injection and measurements show the trial is unsuccessful in alleviating his diabetic symptoms significantly.
January 23, 1922 – The team tries again, and Leonard Thompson is the first human to receive a successful injection of pancreatic extract. Collip’s improved extraction process produces a purer substance that works effectively. Within 24h, Thompson's glycosuria almost disappears.
June 3, 1922 – The researchers bestow the patent rights and licensing of insulin in North America to the University of Toronto Board of Governors as a public trust for the customary fee of $1.
The University of Toronto Insulin Committee’s function is to act as a regulator at a time when government drug controls were essentially non-existent. Learn more from #HeritageMinute consultant Christopher Rutty at @Moments_Canada: definingmomentscanada.ca/insulin100/tim…
For more on the discovery of insulin, visit the @CdnEncyclopedia’s article: TheCanadianEncyclopedia.ca/en/article/the…
And @Moments_Canada’s timeline: definingmomentscanada.ca/insulin100/tim…
And @Moments_Canada’s timeline: definingmomentscanada.ca/insulin100/tim…
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