Best, Charles H

Best, Charles H(erbert)

(born Feb. 27, 1899, West Pembroke, Maine, U.S.—died March 31, 1978, Toronto, Ont., Can.) U.S.-born Canadian physiologist. He was a professor and administrator at the University of Toronto 1929–67. With Frederick Banting, he was the first to obtain a pancreatic extract of insulin in a form useful for controlling diabetes mellitus (1921). He did not receive the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Banting and J. J. R. Macleod because he did not yet have his medical degree, although Banting voluntarily shared his portion of the prize with Best. Best also discovered the vitamin choline and the enzyme histaminase and was one of the first to introduce anticoagulants to treat thrombosis.