The Banting Research Foundation is a registered charity whose object was to fund health and biomedical research in Canada. It was established to support the ongoing research of

Frederick Banting Sir Frederick Grant Banting (November 14, 1891 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian pharmacologist, orthopedist, and field surgeon. For his co-discovery of insulin and its therapeutic potential, Banting was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physi ...

and his associates.

History

The Banting Research Foundation was created in 1925 to commemorate the discovery of

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

and to support further medical research by Frederick G. Banting and other scientists in Canada, hoping to find additional medical discoveries of equal importance. A fundraising campaign in 1925, led by Sir William Mulock, Chancellor of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, raised $500,000 from individual and corporate donors to establish an endowment. A large bequest in 1948 from the estate of Kate E Taylor of Toronto was added to the endowment.Shorter, Edward. ''Partnership for Excellence: Medicine at the University of Toronto and Academic Hospitals''. University of Toronto Press, 2013. From its inception, the intent was to create a fund for researchers with "good ideas but no money", as was the situation for Banting when he approached JJR Macleod in 1921 with a request for facilities and resources to pursue his ideas about insulin. The Foundation continues that tradition by making grant funds available only to investigators whose research funding is limited. The Foundation was the first and virtually the only organization funding medical research in Canada until 1938 when the National Research Council included medical research in its funding programs.

Some notable grant recipients

* Charles Best *

Wilfred Gordon Bigelow Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow (June 18, 1913 – March 27, 2005) was a Canadian heart surgeon known for his role in developing the artificial pacemaker and the use of hypothermia in open heart surgery. Born in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of ...

* Bruce Chown *

Michel Chrétien Michel Chrétien (born March 26, 1936) is a Canadian medical researcher specializing in neuroendocrinology research at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, or Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, (IRCM). He is a younger brothe ...

* Adolfo J. de Bold * John Dirks * Wilbur R. Franks *

Clarke Fraser Frank Clarke Fraser (29 March 1920 – 17 December 2014) was a Canadian medical geneticist. Spanning the fields of science and medicine, he was Canada's first medical geneticist, one of the creators of the discipline of medical genetics in North ...

Henry Friesen Henry George Friesen (July 31, 1934 – April 30, 2025) was a Canadian endocrinologist, a distinguished professor emeritus of the University of Manitoba and the discoverer of human prolactin, a hormone which stimulates lactation in mammary gla ...

* Arthur Ham *

Charles Hollenberg Charles H. Hollenberg (September 15, 1930 – April 8, 2003) was a Canadian physician, educator and researcher. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he received a Bachelor of Science in 1950 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1955 from the University of Man ...

Charles Philippe Leblond Charles Philippe Leblond (February 5, 1910 – April 10, 2007) was a pioneer of cell biology and stem cell research and a Canadian former professor of anatomy. Leblond is notable for developing autoradiography and his work showing how cells ...

* D. W. Gordon Murray * William Thornton Mustard *

Janet Rossant Janet Rossant, (born 13 July 1950) is a developmental biologist well known for her contributions to the understanding of the role of genes in embryo development. She is a leader in developmental biology. Her current research interests focus on ...

Louis Siminovitch Louis Siminovitch (May 1, 1920 – April 6, 2021) was a Canadian molecular biologist. He was a pioneer in human genetics, researcher into the genetic basis of muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, and helped establish Ontario programs explorin ...

Governance

The Foundation is incorporated in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is governed by a Board of Trustees, the make-up of which is specified in its Letters Patent as follows: three Trustees appointed by the Governing Council of the University of Toronto, two Trustees appointed by the University of Toronto Alumni Association, two Trustees appointed from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, and one Trustee appointed by the other Trustees. The original Board of Trustees in 1925 was composed of Sir Robert Falconer, chairman, Lt Col Reuben W Leonard, Rev Canon Henry J Cody, Charles Strange MacDonald, William Edward Gallie, John Gerald FitzGerald, Velyien Ewart Henderson, and John William Rogers.Hutchison, F Lorne. Banting Research Foundation. Can Med Assoc J. 1924 April; 14(4):335-336.

References

External links

{{Archival records, title=Banting Research Foundation fonds
BantingResearchFoundation.ca
Health charities in Canada Organizations established in 1925