Featured

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize for the Discovery of Insulin to Banting and Macleod: Impact and Legacy

Posted on
Nobel Laureate Dr Arthur Mcdonald; Professor Erling Norrby of Stockholm; Her Excellency Signe Burgstaller, Ambassador of Sweden to Canada; Nobel Laureate John Polanyi; Dr John Dirks

On November 27, 2023, the Toronto Medical Historical Club hosted a successful symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Frederick Banting and JJR Macleod for the discovery of insulin. The event brought together a distinguished panel of speakers to reflect on the impact and legacy of the insulin discovery and to inspire future research advancement.

News

Freeze-dried blood serum from the 1940s gives hope to researchers of today

Posted on
Kanwal Singh from Defence Research and Development Canada helped Dr. Beckett take freeze-dried plasma from 1943, which this empty bottle once contained, and see how well it had held up over time. [Photo: SAMMY KOGAN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL]

Club member Christopher Rutty is featured in this fascinating story that appears in today’s Globe & Mail. Dr Rutty is resident historian and manager of the Sanofi Toronto archives where an 80-year old bottle in a museum display-case provided striking evidence of the value of freeze-dried blood serum.

News

Prize Fight: Canada’s First Nobel Prize

Posted on
Banquet in the Great Hall of Hart House, University of Toronto, 26 November 1923 in honour of FG Banting and JJR Macleod jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

Ivan Semeniuk has an excellent article in today’s Globe & Mail titled “Prize Fight: One century later, experts revisit the hidden feud behind Canada’s First Nobel,” describing the complex history behind the award to Banting and Macleod for the discovery of insulin. Semeniuk attended the symposium hosted by the Toronto Medical Historical Club last month and describes the hidden tensions among the key figures as well as the evolution of the story of the discovery over the past 100 years. Several speakers at the symposium, John Dirks, James Wright, and Ken McHardy, are interviewed in the article.

News

Smallpox Eradication

Posted on
This sketch, called 'Incident of the Smallpox Epidemic, Montreal,' by Robert Harris, shows the violence with which the sanitary police removed smallpox patients from the public to quarantine them. The illustration was first published in Harper's Weekly, on Nov. 28, 1885. PHOTO BY ROBERT HARRIS

In today’s Ottawa Citizen, Ryan Briggs and Christopher Rutty argue for the declaration of “Smallpox Eradication Day.” In the context of COVID-19, which reminded the world of the power of a novel virus to bring illness and death, Briggs and Rutty make the case that it is important to remember what was accomplished on Dec. 9, 1979.

You can read more in Chris’s article titled “Smallpox: ‘The Speckled Monster'” which was written for the University of Toronto Connaught Fund website for his series on the Connaught Laboratories.

Insulin 100 News

First Canadian Nobel Prize is 100 years old

Posted on

Christopher Rutty is interviewed in this article “L’insuline, découverte vitale et bisbille créatrice : le 1er Nobel canadien a 100 ans” at CBC/Radio-Canada. Today marks the 100th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Frederick Banting and JJR Macleod for the discovery of insulin.

Chris is also featured in the television story on the centenary that is available here.