John Macleod
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
John James Rickard Macleod
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1923
Born: 6 September 1876, Cluny, Scotland
Died: 16 March 1935, Aberdeen, Scotland
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Prize motivation: “for the discovery of insulin”
Prize share: 1/2
Work
Diabetes is the body's inability to metabolize sugar correctly. Doctors realized that diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin, which is formed in parts of the pancreas, but could not prove it. Frederick Banting suspected that another substance formed in the pancreas, trypsin, broke down the insulin. In John Macleod's laboratory in 1921, Frederick Banting and Charles Best treated dogs so that they no longer produced trypsin. Insulin could then be extracted and used to treat diabetes.
Discover more
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1923
“There was no doubt this was a real breakthrough”
More than one hundred years ago, the 1923 medicine prize was awarded to Frederick Banting and John Macleod for the discovery of insulin.
Here, experts from the Nobel Assembly and Karolinska Institutet discuss the story behind the discovery and how it has revolutionised the broader landscape of scientific advancements.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
