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Thomas Willis noted the sweet smell of urine.
Oxford physician noted the sweet smell of urine of diabetics. -
Patient treated with dietary restriction
John Rollo, Surgeon-General to the Royal Artillery restricted a patient's diet in order to treat their diabetes. -
Claude Bernard made several discoveries about the liver.
In the early 19th century, a trained pharmacist, Claude Bernard discovered that the liver stored glycogen and secreted a sugary substance into the blood, which he assumed was what caused diabetes. -
Von Mering disproved Bernard's liver theory.
Von Mering, a German physician found that removing the pancreas caused diabetes, which disproved Bernard's theory that a sugary substance from the liver caused it. His partner and him tried to extract an antidiabetic substance from the pancreas, but could not find out how. -
Discovery of Insulin
Fredrick Banting, a unsuccessful orthopaedic surgeon, got together with a medical student, Charles Best, a physiology professor, J.J.R. Macloud, and a biochemistry professor, J.B. Collip. They prepared an extract from the atrophied pancreas of a dog. They then isolated two other dogs with diabetes, administered the exract to one, and nothing to the other. The dog that recieved no treatment died after four days, but the other dog lived three weeks. -
First human patient treated with insulin
A 14 year old boy was treated with the insulin produced by Banting and Best. -
Purified injections given to patient
The insulin made by Banting and Best failed, but purified injections made by Collip were administered. -
Insulin use spreading
By the end of 1923, insulin was being commercially produced and was being used often to treat diabetes in many western countries. Eli Lilly was one of several people responsible for this and later created several different types of insulin. The original insulin was short acting, had to be injected twice daily, was often crude or impure, and would commonly cause pain and abscesses. -
Insulin crystallized
Insulin was crystallized by J. J. Abel. -
Protamine zinc insulin introduced
This new type of insulin was long lasting. -
3D structure discovered
Dorothy Hodgin, studying at Oxford, discovered the three dimensional structure of an insulin molecule and recieved the Nobel Prize. -
Lente insulin introduced
Lilly introduced another type of insulin called lente or iletin. (bottle on right) -
Composition of insulin discovered
Fredrick Sanger of Cambridge discovered insulin's compostion, two chains of 51 amino acids linked by disulphide bridges, and recieved Nobel Prize in 1955. -
Immunoassay
The technique of immunoassay was discovered by Soloman Berson and Rosalind Yalow. This allows for minute concentrations of insulin to be detected and measured with the use of an antibody or immunoglobulin.
