Charles Herbert Best

Charles Herbert Best, CC ( born February 27, 1899 in West Pembroke, Maine, USA; † 31 March 1978 in Toronto, Canada) was a physiologist and biochemist. Considered together with Frederick Banting co-discoverer of insulin as (after Nicolae Paulescu ).

Born in West Pembroke in 1899, he studied at the University of Toronto. While still a medical student, he began his work in 1921 with Frederick Grant Banting, in 1923 eventually led to the Nobel Prize. The award was, however, Frederick Grant Banting and awarded the Scottish physiologist John James Richard Macleod, and not the involved in discovering Charles Best, Banting and MacLeod subsequently gave half of their bonuses to Best as well as the co-responsible for the cleaning of insulin biochemist James Bertram Collip, so as to show their solidarity and recognition. In 1932, Best was elected a member of the Scholars Academy Leopoldina. 1971 Best won a Gairdner Foundation International Award.

In 1923 the " Best Banting Institute " for Medical Research at the University of Toronto was founded. After the death of Banting was Best Director in the year 1941. There he worked mainly specialized areas of muscle and exercise physiology as well as the carbohydrate metabolism and has been instrumental in many individual discoveries.

At an advanced age he himself suffered from diabetes mellitus and died at the age of 79 years as one of the leading Canadian researchers of the 20th century.