Lam: 100 years on, we celebrate the Nobel Prize winners who hated each other

Frederick Banting and John Macleod were honoured on Dec. 10, 1923, for the groundbreaking discovery of insulin despite their legendary inability to get along.

Published Dec 07, 2023 • Last updated 26 minutes ago • 4 minute read

Frederick Banting (right) and Charles Best, photographed in 1921 at the University of Toronto. Photo by Henry Mahon, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto

Each December, Nobel Prizes are awarded to exceptional researchers who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in science. Hundreds of awards have been given, but some advances rise above the rest and deserve extra acclaim for their brilliance and impact. One hundred years ago, the discovery of insulin was one such breakthrough. The Nobel Prize for this triumph, awarded to Frederick Banting and John Macleod on Dec. 10, 1923, also became famous for another reason.

Advertisement 2

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Exclusive articles from Elizabeth Payne, David Pugliese, Andrew Duffy, Bruce Deachman and others. Plus, food reviews and event listings in the weekly newsletter, Ottawa, Out of Office.Unlimited online access to Ottawa Citizen and 15 news sites with one account.Ottawa Citizen ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.

SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.

Article content

The winners loathed each other.

Article content

When he first received news of the award, Banting flew into a rage and vowed to refuse the prize. His ire stemmed from hatred of Macleod, who he believed had ridden his coattails and gained undue credit for Banting’s work. For Macleod to receive the same honour seemed outrageous.

Three years prior, Banting was an unknown — an unsuccessful surgeon in London, Ont. One night he stumbled across an article that sparked an epiphany concerning the cause of diabetes. He imagined a novel way of isolating the product of mysterious pancreatic cells termed islets of Langerhans, which were suspected to influence blood sugar regulation.

Banting took his idea to Macleod, an expert at the University of Toronto. Though Banting was inarticulate, had no research experience and failed to impress him, Macleod still let Banting and a student collaborator, Charles Best, use some lab space. Macleod offered the pair some advice and then left for a summer-long vacation to Scotland.

Banting and Best’s 1921 summer at the University of Toronto would become legendary in the annals of medical history. Experimenting on dogs, they isolated insulin and used it to enact miraculous resurrections of depancreatized dogs — listless and dying from diabetes — that would suddenly jump up, energetic and frisky, once injected with insulin.

Advertisement 3

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Banting laboured all summer, living austerely without a salary. He sometimes roamed the streets seeking to buy stray dogs for $1 to $3 each. Yet Banting knew he had made a breakthrough.

Macleod did not share Banting’s enthusiasm. He considered Banting a neophyte. Many talented scientists had tried to isolate insulin and failed; what was the chance this inexperienced surgeon had succeeded? When Macleod returned from his vacation, he initially declined Banting’s request for a salary, a boy to help care for the dogs and necessary repairs for the lab space. He implied that Banting’s research was no more important than other projects under his supervision.

Furious, Banting said he would leave the university and take his research elsewhere. To this Macleod responded that Banting “had better go.”

John Macleod, photographed in 1928. At one point, he wanted Frederick Banting to take his research elsewhere. Photo by Courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto

Though Macleod later acquiesced to Banting’s requests and Banting stayed, the relationship between the two would remain forever ruined. Banting was a poor public speaker. In presentations he would mumble and fail to convey the importance of their research. On these occasions the polished and respected Macleod saved the day by stepping in to re-explain everything — infuriating Banting, who began to suspect Macleod aimed to take credit for his discovery.

Advertisement 4

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Banting’s paranoia made him difficult to work with. A dispute with a co-investigator named James Collip, who had successfully purified the team’s insulin extract, became physical. Banting was larger and stronger. Of this episode, Charles Best remembered: “Collip was fortunate not to be seriously hurt … I can remember restraining Banting with all the force at my command.”

Macleod did make significant contributions to the effort, by providing ideas, giving direction and helping demonstrate the merit of the research to the scientific community; but Banting resented him for showing little interest in the project at the outset, felt he had contributed little, and believed the professor had taken undeserved credit once they succeeded. For his part, Macleod considered Banting over-sensitive, hopelessly paranoid and impossible to placate.

A trusted colleague later convinced Banting that he could not refuse the Nobel Prize because it was a great national honour: the first major medical discovery to be made in Canada. Banting relented, but told the press that he would share his half of the prize money with Best. Macleod subsequently announced he would give half his award to Collip.

Advertisement 5

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Banting’s grudge against Macleod never abated. Debate and argument over who had done what and when — indeed, who deserved credit for discovering insulin itself — persisted for decades. In truth, all four investigators made significant contributions to the discovery.

Today, infusing stem cell-derived islets of Langerhans cells into patients with type 1 diabetes holds promise as a potential cure. We owe a debt to Frederick Banting, John Macleod, Charles Best, and James Collip for saving millions of lives. They were imperfect individuals, but together, they transformed diabetes from a death sentence to a chronic, manageable illness.

On the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded for their discovery, their achievement deserves to be remembered as an unsurpassed triumph that ranks among the greatest medical breakthroughs in history.

Andrew Lam, MD, is retina surgeon, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and author of The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases and Saving Sight: An Eye Surgeon’s Look at Life Behind the Mask and the Heroes Who Changed the Way We See.