Charles Herbert Best was an American-Canadian medical scientist and physiologist who along with Canadian medical scientist and physician Sir Frederick Banting co-discovered insulin and the technique of applying it to treat diabetes. Best began working as a laboratory assistant of Dr. Banting at the ‘University of Toronto’ while undergoing graduate studies at the university. The duo remained among the first ones to obtain a hormone called insulin (which is made by the pancreas) in a form that kept diabetes of dogs under control. Insulin, which permits a body to use glucose or sugar that are obtained from carbohydrates from the food that is consumed for energy and also to reserve it for future use, was then effectively put to use by the duo for treating diabetes in human patients. This pioneering work led Dr. Banting to receive the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1923 along with Scottish biochemist and physiologist J.J.R. Macleod for their contributions in such significant  work, however as Best was yet to receive his medical degree, he was left out from the award. The other discoveries of Best include the enzyme histaminase and the vitamin choline. He also remains among the first ones to introduce anticoagulants for treating thrombosis, a condition of blood clotting in a region of the circulatory system. He became the director of the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the ‘University of Toronto’ succeeding Dr. Banting after working with the latter as research associate in the department for years. Best received much recognition and several honours for his work on insulin.  His awards include ‘Flavelle Medal’ (1950); ‘Gairdner Foundation International Award’ (1971); and the Canadian version of the ‘Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal’ (1977).