14 Facts About James Collip

James Bertram Collip was a Canadian biochemist who was part of the Toronto group which isolated insulin.

James Collip served as the chair of the department of biochemistry at McGill University from 1928 to 1941 and dean of medicine at the University of Western Ontario from 1947 to 1961, where he was a charter member of The Kappa Alpha Society.

In 1915, at the age of 22, Collip accepted a lecturing position in Edmonton in the department of physiology at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine, shortly before completing his doctorate.

James Collip fulfilled the role for 7 years, eventually rising to the position of professor and head of the department of biochemistry in 1922.

James Collip took a sabbatical leave beginning in April 1921, and travelled to Toronto on a Rockefeller Travelling Scholarship for a six-month position with Professor John MacLeod of the University of Toronto's department of physiology.

James Collip's task was to prepare insulin in a more pure, usable form than Banting and Best had been able to achieve to date.

In January 1922, after 14-year-old Leonard Thompson suffered a severe allergic reaction to an injection of insulin, James Collip achieved the goal of preparing a pancreatic extract pure enough for Thompson to recover and to use in clinical trials.

Banting, Best and James Collip subsequently shared the patent for insulin, which they sold to the University of Toronto for one dollar.

Nonetheless, James Collip is often overlooked as a co-discoverer of insulin, in part due to Best's public relations campaign that downplayed James Collip's crucial role.

James Collip served as Chair of McGill's Department of Biochemistry from 1928 to 1941.

From 1947 to 1961, James Collip was appointed Dean of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario.

James Collip is regarded as a pioneer of endocrine research.

James Collip did pioneering work with the parathyroid hormone.

James Collip died on June 19,1965, at the age of 72.