Charles Best (medical scientist)

Charles Herbert Best
File:C. H. Best ca. 1924.png Best circa 1924
Born	(1899-02-27)February 27, 1899 West Pembroke, Washington County, Maine
Died	March 31, 1978(1978-03-31) (aged 79) Toronto, Ontario
Known for	Co-discoverer of insulin
Awards	Order of Canada Order of the British Empire Order of the Companions of Honour

Dr. Charles Herbert Best, CC, MD, FRS, FRSC, FRCP (February 27, 1899 – March 31, 1978) was a medical scientist. He was one of the co-discoverers of insulin.

Born in West Pembroke, Washington County, Maine, the son of Luella Fisher Best and Herbert Huestis Best, his parents were Canadians from Nova Scotia. Best moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1915 where he started studying towards a Bachelor of Arts degree at University College, University of Toronto. In 1918, he enlisted in the Canadian Army serving with the 2nd Canadian Tank Battalion. After the war, he completed his degree in the Physiology and Biochemistry course.

As a 22-year-old medical student at the University of Toronto he worked as an assistant to Dr. Frederick Banting and played a major role in the discovery of the pancreatic hormone insulin—one of the most significant advances in medicine, enabling an effective treatment for diabetes.

In 1923, the Nobel Prize committee honoured Banting and J.J.R. Macleod with the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of insulin, ignoring Best. This incensed Banting, who voluntarily shared half of his award money with Best.

Best succeeded Macleod as professor of physiology at University of Toronto in 1929. During World War II he was influential in establishing a Canadian programme for securing and using dried human blood serum. In his later years, Best was an adviser to the medical research committee of the United Nations World Health Organization.

Best married Margaret Hooper Mahon in Toronto in 1924. They had two sons. One son, Dr. Henry Best was a well regarded historian who later became Laurentian Universities President in 1977. Thirty years later his own daughter, Mairi Best, had become equally regarded in her own right as the associate director for the Pacific Neptune project.

Charles Best is interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

Awards and honours

In 1967 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in recognition "for his contribution to medicine, particularly as co-discoverer of insulin". He was a Commander of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire and was made a member of Order of the Companions of Honour in 1971 "for services to Medical Research". He was a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Canada, and was the first Canadian to be elected into the Pontifical Academy of Sciences .

In 1994 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Dr. Charles Best Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, C.H. Best West Elementary School in Burlington, Ontario, and C.H. Best East Middle School in Toronto, Ontario, are named in his honour.

Honorary Degrees

Dr. Charles Best received 18 [1] Honorary Degrees from Universities around the World Including

• University of Chicago
• Université Sorbonne de Paris
• Cambridge University
• Oxford University
• University of Amsterdam
• University of Louvain
• University of Liège
• University of Chile
• University of Uruguay
• University of San Marcos
• University of Melbourne
• University of Edinburgh
• Northwestern University
• Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki
• Free University of Berlin
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• University of Zagreb
• University of Toronto

See also

• Insulin
• Nicolae Paulescu

Further reading

• Henry B. M. Best (2003). Margaret and Charley: The Personal Story of Dr. Charles Best, the Co-Discoverer of Insulin. Dundurn Press Ltd. ISBN 1550023993.
• John Waller (2002) Fabulous Science: fact and fiction in the history of scientific discovery, Oxford. See Chapter 11: "Painting yourself into a corner; Charles Best and the discovery of insulin", page 223.

External links

• CBC Digital Archives. Chasing a Cure for Diabetes. Accessed 16 June 2008.
• Dr. Charles Best Secondary School. Accessed 16 June 2008.
• Ontario Plaques, The Discovery of Insulin. Accessed 16 June 2008.
• Order of Canada Citation. Accessed 16 June 2008.
• University of Toronto. Banting and Best Department of Medical Research Charles Herbert Best. Accessed 16 June 2008.