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Diabetes Research Milestones

Scroll through the timeline to learn more about the milestones in diabetes research.

1910

English physiologist Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer's further studying of the pancreas, leads him to the discovery of a substance that would normally be produced in non-diabetics: insulin. The name comes from the Latin insula, meaning island, referencing the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.

 

1916


 

Joslin Award 150x91

Elliott Joslin, MD, publishes the first edition of The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus. A clinician and educator, Joslin is renowned throughout the world as one of the most influential voices in diabetes care.

 



 


1921

 

 

Best & Banting 150x91

 

Frederick Banting, MD, and his then student assistant, Charles Best, MD, extract insulin from dog pancreases. They inject the insulin into dogs whose pancreases have been removed, and the animals’ blood sugar levels go down. James Collip purifies the extract so that it can be used in humans.

 

 

1923

Eli Lilly and Company begin commercial production of insulin. In the decades that follow, manufacturers develop a variety of slower-acting insulins, the first being protamine insulin introduced by Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in 1936.


1924


Priscilla White 150x91

At a time when less than half of all babies born to mothers with diabetes survive, Priscilla White, MD, starts the Joslin Pregnancy Clinic. Fifty years later, Dr. White achieves a 90 percent survival rate among babies born to her patients.

  

 

 1940

 

ADA Logo Cropped

 

The American Diabetes Association is founded to address the increasing incidence of diabetes and the complications developing from the disease.

 

1949


Levine 150x91

Rachmiel Levine, MD, discovers that insulin works like a key, transporting glucose into cells.

Becton Dickinson and Company begins production of a standardized insulin syringe designed and approved by the ADA.

  

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