John James Richard Macleod

See also: John MacLeod

John James Richard Macleod (September 6, 1876 – March 16, 1935) was a Scottish physician, physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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Biography

Macleod was born at Clunie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. He was the son of the Rev. Robert Macleod.

During 1898 he received his medical degree from University of Aberdeen and went to work for a year at the University of Leipzig. During 1899 he was appointed Demonstrator of Physiology at the London Hospital Medical School and in 1902 he was appointed Lecturer in Biochemistry at the school. During 1903 he was appointed Professor of Physiology at the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio. During 1918 he was elected Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Macleod's main work was on carbohydrate metabolism and his efforts with Frederick Banting and Charles Best in the discovery of insulin used to treat diabetes. For this Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923. Macleod was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin, in spite of the fact that many people (including Banting) publicly insisted that Macleod's involvement was minimal and Best's work had been essential. Macleod's receiving the Nobel Prize over Best remains controversial (see Nobel Prize controversies).

He wrote eleven books, including Recent Advances in Physiology (1905); Diabetes: its Pathological Physiology (1925); and Carbohydrate Metabolism and Insulin. (1926)

The auditorium of the Medical Science Building at University of Toronto is named after J.J.R. Macleod. In 2005 Diabetes UK named its offices in London in honour of J.J.R. Macleod.