Biography

James Bertram Collip was one of the great minds of Canadian Medicine. Graduating from Trinity College, Toronto, at age 15, Collip completed his doctorate in Biochemistry and accepted a position as lecturer at the University of Alberta where he commended an outstanding career in biochemical research. He was on a travelling fellowship when he accepted the invitation of the University of Toronto to work with Banting and Best on the development of insulin. His efforts at purifying insulin, a working with the bovine pancreas, produced insulin in a form which permitted clinical use. Completing an M.D., Collip accepted the Chair of Biochemistry at McGill, where he launched into extensive studies of hormones. In 1941, he became Chairman of McGill's new Institute of Endocrinology. Collip capped a brilliant career as Dean of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario.