Peptides have been saving lives for over 100 years. You already know one: insulin.
Insulin is a peptide hormone that regulates blood sugar. Its use transformed type 1 diabetes from a usually fatal disease into a condition people could live with.
That breakthrough came from the University of Toronto in 1921, through the work of Frederick Banting, Charles Best, J.J.R. Macleod and James Collip. Treatment of patients followed in 1922.
Today, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi are major insulin manufacturers. Two of those same companies are central to the newer wave of peptide medicines:
Novo Nordisk makes semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy.
Eli Lilly makes tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound.
And Toronto’s role continues.
University of Toronto professor and Sinai Health scientist Daniel Drucker helped establish the science behind GLP 1 medicines. His research also extends to GLP 2, a peptide involved in intestinal growth and repair.
Toronto researchers are now investigating how these hormone pathways affect organs beyond the pancreas, including how semaglutide influences liver inflammation.
Insulin and today’s newer peptide medicines work differently, and each needs its own evidence. But the connection is real: decades of studying the body’s own chemical signals are shaping some of modern medicine’s biggest advances.
How many people hear “peptides” and never realize insulin belongs in that conversation?
Our Source: University of Toronto