Diabetes mellitus is a disease as ancient as our civilization. The milestones in its history are numerous. Over time, observation, experimentation, and research on this disease have been carried out by scientists, some of whom have transcended into posterity.
Among them, Frederick Grant Banting and John J. R. MacLeod were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1923 for their extraordinary discovery of insulin, a breakthrough that marked a before and after in the treatment of diabetes and, more broadly, in the field of medicine.
Through Banting’s speech during the Nobel ceremony, we will reconstruct the history of diabetes, following his words. From observing the most evident symptoms, through diagnosis and the formulation of hypotheses, to experimentation, successes, and failures—all in the ultimate attempt to understand the origins of this disease and find a way to treat it.
Indeed, the history of diabetes is nothing less than the history of science itself, the story of a true adventure. The scientist, in all their expressions, has been and continues to be a true explorer in search of a treasure.
Ultimately, in this boundless adventure, we seek to pay tribute to all those explorers who devoted themselves body and soul to the pursuit of the treasure—the knowledge and understanding of the complex and Borgesian puzzle that is life.
