Mladen Vranic is best known for his work in glucose tracer methodology to study the effects of exercise and stress in diabetes. He came to Canada to work with Charles H Best, co-discoverer of insulin, and was first funded by the Banting Research Foundation in 1966 for his work on glucagon physiology. Glucagon plays a…
Charles H Hollenberg, OC MD FRSC
Charles Hollenberg was a physician, administrator, teacher and researcher. Born in Manitoba and educated at the University of Manitoba, he started his research career in 1960 at McGill University. After a decade there, he moved to the University of Toronto and became Chair of the Department of Medicine, where he transformed it into a place…
Brenda L Gallie, CM MD FRCSC
Brenda Gallie is a world-renowned ophthalmologist known for her contributions to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of retinoblastoma, a childhood eye cancer. In 1983, shortly after being appointed assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Toronto, Dr Gallie received a Banting Research Foundation grant to study the mutations of retinoblastoma, a rare form of…
Henry G Friesen, CC MD FRSC FCAHS
Henry Friesen is an internationally renowned endocrinologist best known for the discovery of human prolactin. Prolactin is a hormone that stimulates lactation in mammary glands and plays an important role in infertility and reproductive disorders. He was president of the former Medical Research Council of Canada from 1991 until 2000 when it became the Canadian…
Imogen R Coe, PhD
Imogen Coe, Founding Dean of the Faculty of Science at Ryerson University, is internationally recognized for her research in the cell biology and biochemistry of membrane transport proteins. Dr Coe received a Banting Research Foundation grant in 1998, while at York University, to study the influence of steroid hormones on the uptake of a class…
Funding the first clinical trials of heparin
The Banting Research Foundation funded the first clinical trials of heparin in 1935. Heparin is a powerful anticoagulant that is widely used in open-heart and organ transplant surgery to prevent the formation of blood clots. It was purified in the early 1930s in Toronto under the direction of Dr Charles H Best. It was then…
Adolfo J. de Bold, OC PhD FRSC
Adolfo de Bold is a cardiovascular researcher, best known for his discovery of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), a polypeptide hormone secreted by heart muscle cells. He was funded by the Banting Research Foundation in 1980 for his studies on storage granules in atrial heart cells. The resulting discovery and isolation of atrial natriuretic factor changed…
Janet Rossant, CC PhD FRS FRSC
Janet Rossant is a world-renowned expert in developmental biology. Funded by the Banting Research Foundation in 1983, while at Brock University, for her early research in developmental biology, she has become a global leader in understanding the role of genes in embryo development. Her work has been fundamental in the development of human pluripotent stem…
