History of Diabetes
Majid Ali, M.D.
Part of Dr. Ali’s Course on Diabetes – Part One
Major Conttibutors to the knowledge of diabetes – Brief Notes
Josef, Baron von Mering (1849 1908, a German physician who discover (in conjunction with Oskar Minkowski) that the pancreatic produces insulin, a hormone that lowers blood sugar level. He removed a dog’s pancreas and recognized that the dog developped diabetes. Mering also collaborated in the discovery of barbiturates.
Paul Langerhans (1847 – 1888) , a German physiologist and pathpologist who discovered collection of insulin-producing cells called Islet of Langerhans. He also discovered a type of immune cell in the skin called Langerehans cells or dendritic cell.
Charles Herbert Best (1899 –1978), an American-Canadian scientist c-discovered insulin (along with Canadian Prof. JRR McLeod). Both shared Nobel Prize for their work.
Sir Frederick Grant Banting 1891 –1941), a Canadian physician, was the first person to use insulin to treat humans. He was awarded Nobel Prize fo his work.
Sir Harold Percival Himsworth (1905 – 1993) was the first doctor to describe two forms of diabetes in a seminal 1936 paper published in the British journal The Lancet.