James Collip was born on November 20, 1892 in Ontario, Canada. He received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto and was a university lecturer and researcher for many years.

A last-minute decision before leaving for a study trip to London saw him join Frederick Banting, Charles Best and Professor John McLeod in their efforts to purify insulin extracted from the pancreas of a dog. It was Collip’s purified extract that was administered to Leonard Thompson in 1922. Unfortunately, Collip didn’t record his formula and he wasn’t able to replicate the process.

It took the Toronto team another three months to rediscover a method of purification. In 1923, Professor John McLeod was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine which he shared with Collip. He continued to work in the field of endocrinology and later served as an Acting Colonel during the Second World War. He married Ray Ralph and they had three children. He died in 1965, at the age of 72 after suffering a stroke.