Insulin discovery enshrined

The original documents detailing Canada’s discovery of life-saving insulin have been inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

It protects and promotes documentary collections of global significance.

The Discovery of Insulin collection from the University of Toronto Libraries records one of the most significant medical discoveries of the 20th century.  The 7,000-page collection includes handwritten notes by Frederick Banting, Charles Best, James Collip and John Macleod about early experiments and the successful use of insulin.  Patient letters and charts, photographs, lab notebooks and other documents record the process of discovery and insulin’s development at the university.

Banting and Macleod were awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for medicine.  Banting shared his cash award with Best and Macleod shared his with Collip.