Insulin (1921)
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Voted the greatest Canadian invention by the nation's public for the 2007 TV show of the same name, insulin was discovered in 1921 by Charles Herbert Best and Frederick Banting in the laboratory of John Macleod at the University of Toronto.
The peptide hormone provided a lifeline for type 1 diabetes sufferers, most of who lived for little more than a year or two before its sensational discovery.