In 1946, researchers discovered intermediate-acting insulin, also known as Neutral Protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin, which persists in the body for 14–24 hours, which means that people who take it require fewer injections. This saved his life - at the time, type 1 diabetes became a terminal illness more often than not - and cemented the importance of the researchers’ discovery.īanting and Macleod won the Nobel prize in medicine “for the discovery of insulin” in 1923. In 1922, Banting and Best treated a young boy with type 1 diabetes by injecting him with insulin. They then injected dogs with diabetes with this “extract” and thereby made the discovery that changed the face of type 1 diabetes treatment forever. It was a little over 30 years later, in 1921, that Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best - working in the laboratory of John Macleod - from the University of Toronto in Canada extracted insulin from the hormone-producing cells found in the pancreases of healthy dogs. However, von Mering and Minkowski were not able to establish this connection at the time. In 1889, Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski, two researchers at the University of Strasbourg in France, removed the pancreases of dogs and found that the animals would then go on to develop diabetes.Īs we now know, the pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. Thomas Barber, honorary consultant endocrinologist and assistant professor at the Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom.ĭiabetes was known - as a collection of symptoms - over 3,500 years ago, as a papyrus dating from 1550 before the common era (BCE) was already describing a condition consistent with the symptoms of diabetes.Įven though physicians have encountered and treated diabetes throughout history, researchers only discovered the reason behind it around 100 years ago: insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. To find out more about the impact of type 1 diabetes and the challenges of using insulin, we spoke to Virginie, a woman who received a diagnosis for this condition in her 30s.įor insights into current insulin research and potential future developments, we interviewed Dr. In this Special Feature and associated “In Conversation” podcast, we offer an overview of the importance of insulin, its history, and what future research likely holds for insulin therapy and the management of diabetes. However, some may also require insulin treatment if the cells that produce insulin - called pancreatic beta cells - deteriorate in time and stop producing sufficient insulin. Individuals with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels typically through special medication and dietary and lifestyle interventions. People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin, as their bodies do not produce it. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, while in type 2 diabetes, it does not respond to the insulin produced and released by the pancreas.Īround the world, hundreds of millions of people live with a form of this chronic condition, and insulin treatments are key to its management, particularly to the extent that type 1 diabetes is concerned.
People whose bodies are unable to regulate blood sugar levels have diabetes mellitus, which can be of two types, depending on why this regulation does not occur. The pancreas is the organ that produces this hormone, which is normally released in quantities dependent on the levels of blood sugar present in the system at any one time. Insulin is the hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels, keeping them at healthy concentrations.
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