Good friend of our club, Dr Kenneth McHardy of Aberdeen, has published a wonderful article, “Realigning history: The Toronto Four insulin discovery team,” in the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. McHardy describes the decades of effort made to properly recognize the role Professor JJR Macleod played in the insulin discovery of 1921-23 in Toronto. Through the work of John Otto and Kimberlie Hamilton, a striking memorial statue of Macleod was created in Aberdeen’s Duthie Park. Last September 2024, the Toronto Medical Historical Club was proud to participate in a celebration marking the addition of four bronze plaques memorializing the “Toronto Four”–Frederick Banting, Charles Best, JB Collip and JJR Macleod–the collaborators who gave clinically-useful insulin to the world.
Tag: JB Collip
Toronto Four Symposium & Celebration in Aberdeen
View the “Toronto Four” Symposium videos, University of Aberdeen, 6 September 2024
Club members John Dirks, Peter Kopplin, Christopher Rutty and Alison Li, along with colleagues Gary Goldberg, Erling Norrby of Stockholm and James Wright of Calgary and partners Christine Kopplin, Andrea Rutty, and Elsebeth Welander-Berggren were warmly welcomed to Aberdeen by John Otto and Kimberlie Hamilton, co-founders of the JJR Macleod Memorial Statue Society, and by our good friend Kenneth McHardy.
Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize for the Discovery of Insulin to Banting and Macleod: Impact and Legacy
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.
“It Works! Now What?” by Christopher Rutty
Congratulations to Christopher Rutty whose new article ““It Works! Now What?” Insulin Development, Production, and Distribution at Connaught Laboratories, University of Toronto, 1922–24″ appears in the Canadian Journal of Health History.
Chris’ article focuses on Connaught’s intimate involvement in the history of insulin from January 1922 through the summer of 1924, tracing the challenges and innovations of developing larger-scale production methods, the establishment and expansion of Canadian insulin production capacity, and the key role the labs played in spearheading the global distribution of insulin.
Rethinking the “discovery” of insulin
Alison Li has two new articles offering perspectives on the discovery of insulin during this year’s centenary celebrations.
“Rethinking the ‘discovery’ of insulin” appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, 25 October 2021
“Insulin’s centenary: complexity and collaboration” appeared in The Lancet, 13 November 2021, as part of an issue on the challenging theme: “100 years of insulin: technical success but access failure.”