Banting & Best Diabetes Centre and University Health Network Renew Partnership

September 12, 2022

We are delighted to announce a renewed partnership between the Banting & Best Diabetes Centre in the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and University Health Network (UHN). The five-year commitment will enable researchers and clinicians from both organizations to continue working together on new and improved strategies for the prevention and treatment of diabetes.

This collaboration significantly enhances our ability to achieve global impact in diabetes research, education and clinical care. By bringing people together — across our health networks and from a variety of backgrounds — we’re better able to develop new treatment paths to cure diabetes and prevent its complications, while finding innovative ways to improve the lives of people already living with diabetes.

University Health Network will continue to provide much needed support for postdoctoral fellowships and graduate studentships, thereby enabling the BBDC to fund a larger number of diabetes research activities. As well, UHN will provide ongoing support for BBDC educational activities such as the Annual Scientific Day and Seminar Series at City-wide Endocrine Rounds. UHN will also continue providing the BBDC with administrative office space on the 12th floor of the Eaton Building of the Toronto General Hospital.

The BBDC-UHN partnership continues a long-standing legacy of diabetes research and care that dates back to the 1921 discovery of insulin by Drs. Frederick Banting and Charles Best — Nobel prize winners who conducted their research at U of T and the Toronto General Hospital, where the first dose of insulin was given just a year later. This is the fourth renewal of the partnership, which began in 2007 with a focus on training a new generation of diabetes scientists.

Today, one in three Canadians — 11 million — have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Worldwide, almost half a billion people are affected by diabetes.