The Discovery of Insulin: The Rochester, New York, Connection

20 December 2005 | Volume 143 Issue 12 | Pages 907-912

The discovery of insulin in Toronto by Dr. Frederick G. Banting and colleagues has been well chronicled. The story of how insulin therapy was introduced into the United States has been less detailed. The first patient to be treated with insulin in the United States resided in Rochester, New York, a city with a then newly developed medical school that had also tried to recruit Dr. Banting. A series of letters from that period provides a description of the course of a juvenile patient with diabetes before and after the use of insulin as a therapeutic agent.

Author and Article Information

From the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Professor Michael Bliss of the University of Toronto for his generous and unselfish donation of letters from the Havens and Williams families, which he acquired during his research for 2 of his books (1, 2). Copies of these materials have been donated by Dr. Bliss to the Edward G. Miner Library of the University of Rochester Medical Center and have been cataloged and included in the history of medicine archives. The authors also thank Alan Illig and Grant Holcomb III for their help in attaining valuable resources for the paper.

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: None disclosed.

Requests for Single Reprints: Ralph Madeb, MD, Department of Urology, University of Rochester School of Medicine, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 656, Rochester, NY 14642; e-mail, ralph_madeb{at}urmc.rochester.edu.

Current Author Addresses: Drs. Madeb, Koniaris, and Schwartz: University of Rochester School of Medicine, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642.