What is Frederick Banting known for?
I'm known for co-discovering insulin, the hormone that treats diabetes. In 1921, working with Charles Best at the University of Toronto, we isolated insulin from the pancreas of dogs and showed it could lower blood sugar in diabetic animals. The first human trial was in 1922 on a 14-year-old boy, Leonard Thompson, who was near death. Within weeks, he was up and eating normally. That's what matters—the proof is in the patient. We published our findings in 'The Internal Secretion of the Pancreas' and later in 'The Use of Insulin in the Treatment of Diabetes.' I was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923, but I shared the prize money with Best because it was a team effort. Insulin wasn't about credit; it was about getting the job done for the millions of people dying from diabetes.
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