FREDERICK BANTING

To millions at home and abroad he's known as the man who discovered insulin, bringing new hope to diabetics the world over. Frederick Banting's groundbreaking research in the early 1920s brought him worldwide acclaim and earned him a lifetime annuity from the federal government, a knighthood in the British crown and Canada's first ever Nobel Prize.

Frederick Banting

But not long before he made his mark in medical history, Banting was just a young doctor and First World War veteran struggling with a fledgling medical practice in London, Ontario while teaching medical classes at the University of Western Ontario.

But that all changed on Oct. 31, 1920 after a journal article about diabetes research sparked a moment of inspiration. The 28-year-old quickly recorded his thoughts in a notebook -- to try and extract the mysterious hormone associated with the withering disease from the pancreases of dogs.

In his day, diabetics faced shorter lives, blindness and even lost limbs as a result of their body's low levels of insulin, a naturally occurring hormone that converts sugar into energy. At the time researchers knew that diabetics suffered from an imbalance of blood sugar, but they were unable to prescribe anything beyond starvation diets and exercise routines.

With this in mind, Banting spent several months looking for lab space, finally finding a sympathetic ear in John James Richard Macleod, a University of Toronto professor and diabetes expert. In May 1921, Macleod introduced Banting to 22-year-old Charles Best, one of his brightest students who had moved from the U.S. to study medicine. After Best's undergraduate exams the pair quickly began their work in an overheated and under-funded lab.

Over the summer of 1921 they conducted numerous tests on dogs, advancing their ideas with guidance from the more experienced Macleod. Along the way, another researcher, James Bertram Collip, helped to refine a workable sample of insulin for human use.

On Jan. 23, 1922 the researchers gave their serum its first human trial on 14-year-old Leonard Thompson, a severe diabetes sufferer. The teenager's health improved almost immediately, which lead to other tests on diabetics, all of whom displayed similar miraculous turnarounds. With insulin reintroduced to their blood stream, diabetics could bring their blood sugar level under control for the first time. The discovery, though not a cure for the disease, heralded a new healthy life for millions living with diabetes.

The following year Banting and Macleod were nominated for and awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. While the announcement puts Canada on the map, the omission of Best and Collip proved contentious. Banting himself was annoyed by the exclusion of Best, who he had considered an equal in the landmark discovery. He made a point of publicly expressing his support for his lab mate and split his share of the prize money with him, as does Macleod with Collip.

In a selfless move, the quartet decided not to seek a patent for their life-saving serum, a move that surely cost them a fortune. Instead, they sold the rights to their formulation to U of T for $1 as a means of ensuring that insulin could be affordably manufactured for years to come.

In the two decades following his discovery Banting struggled to make another similar breakthrough. Despite research into silicosis and cancer, he failed to make any major discoveries.

However, he did create the world's first G-suit to help pilots cope with high-speed flight. This led to his appointment in 1939 as the chairman of the National Research Council's Committee on Aviation Medical Research. And he even found time to make a name for himself as an amateur artist.

As part of his duties, he boarded a bomber plane on Feb. 21, 1941 bound for England. Shortly after takeoff the plane crashed in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland. Only the pilot survived. Banting was 49 years old.