Club members John Dirks, Peter Kopplin, Christopher Rutty and Alison Li, along with colleagues Gary Goldberg, Erling Norrby of Stockholm and James Wright of Calgary and partners Christine Kopplin, Andrea Rutty, and Elsebeth Welander-Berggren were warmly welcomed to Aberdeen by John Otto and Kimberlie Hamilton, co-founders of the JJR Macleod Memorial Statue Society, and by our good friend Kenneth McHardy.
Christopher Rutty is interviewed in this article “L’insuline, découverte vitale et bisbille créatrice : le 1er Nobel canadien a 100 ans” at CBC/Radio-Canada. Today marks the 100th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Frederick Banting and JJR Macleod for the discovery of insulin.
Chris is also featured in the television story on the centenary that is available here.
John Dirks travelled to Aberdeen to speak at the unveiling of a memorial statue commemorating John James Rickard Macleod, co-discoverer of insulin. Over 300 people attended the luncheon and unveiling of the statue.
The JJR Macleod Memorial Statue Society has been working for over a year to raise the funds and commission a sculpture by Ayrshire-based sculptor John McKenna. The statue is located at Aberdeen’s Duthie Park and will be the first “storytelling statue” in Scotland. Visitors will be able to scan a QR code to hear a brief recording of an actor speaking as Macleod.
We are delighted to announce that “J.J.R. Macleod, Reconsidered: Insulin and Beyond,” an issue of Canadian Journal of Health History (Volume 40, issue 2) is now live on the UTP journals site. It is available via Open Access, thanks to a generous grant from AMS Healthcare. This issue is co-edited by Alison Li, Christopher Rutty, and James Wright and includes articles by Kenneth McHardy, Edwin Gale, Christopher Rutty, and James Wright.
This special issue emerges from the historical workshop on JJR Macleod hosted by the Toronto Medical Historical Club on May 4, 2022, after the “Banting, Bliss, and Beyond” day-long symposium. The planning committee for the symposium consisted of John Dirks, Chair, Peter Kopplin, Secretary, Aubie Angel, Alison Li, Christopher J. Rutty, and Carol Sawka.
We invite you to read these articles which explore the life and career of Macleod, a scientist whose accomplishments have received relatively little attention and whose role in the discovery of insulin continues to be misunderstood.
Congratulations to Christopher Rutty whose new article ““It Works! Now What?” Insulin Development, Production, and Distribution at Connaught Laboratories, University of Toronto, 1922–24″ appears in the Canadian Journal of Health History.
Chris’ article focuses on Connaught’s intimate involvement in the history of insulin from January 1922 through the summer of 1924, tracing the challenges and innovations of developing larger-scale production methods, the establishment and expansion of Canadian insulin production capacity, and the key role the labs played in spearheading the global distribution of insulin.
