Insulin transformed diabetes from a death sentence into a manageable disease; other advances prolonged lives. Yet, behind many breakthroughs are brilliant women scientists whose names remain unfamiliar. But now women are banding together to promote these deserving women scientists.
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, highlighting a disease that affects over 38 million Americans; November 14 is World Diabetes Day. The disease reflects impaired production or use of insulin, a pancreatic hormone that releases blood sugar into your cells for energy. Once fatal and now treatable, it is still not curable, and people with diabetes are more susceptible to the effects of other diseases, significantly impacting their life expectancy.
There are three forms of diabetes:
- Type 1: an autoimmune condition in which the body produces little or no insulin, mostly affecting children and resulting in significantly shorter lifespans.
- Type 2: occurs increasingly with age and obesity as the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn't make enough, often causing complications including damage to the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.
- Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition, developing during pregnancy when the mother can’t produce the extra insulin needed.
The discovery of insulin by Dr. Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best (for which Banting won the Nobel Prize) in 1921 transformed the course of the disease. Over the years, refinements in insulin delivery and advances in treating diabetes complications have increased the longevity of patients with diabetes and made the condition easier to manage. Many of these important contributions were due to the work of great women scientists:
In the late 1920s and 30s, Gerty Cori (working with husband Carl) pioneered research on carbohydrate metabolism, which laid the biochemical foundation for understanding how the body processes sugar and how that cycle breaks down in diabetes.
Beginning in 1935, Dorothy Hodgkin studied the 3D structure of insulin.
In the 1950s, Rosalyn Yalow and Solomon Berson developed radioimmunoassay. This technique measured insulin in the blood, and in so doing, discovered that Type 2 diabetes often involved insulin resistance or antibodies rather than a total lack of the hormone.
All three won Nobel Prizes for their work. But many other great women scientists have contributed to diabetes research and disease management without recognition. For example, Helen Free, along with her husband Alfred, revolutionized diabetes management by developing a reliable, inexpensive method to manage the illness: Clinistix®. This chemically coated dip-and-read stick measures glucose and other key indicators of diabetes by changing color when dipped in a urine sample. This was the first “point-of-care” diagnostic test that could be done in a doctor’s office, at the hospital bedside, or at home without elaborate laboratory facilities.
Nevertheless, diabetes research remained male-dominated. In June 2021, Diabetes, the flagship journal of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), published research that quantitatively investigated the issue. Although almost half of scientific session registrants at the ADA were women (43%), only 9% held leadership roles. While women were well represented on editorial boards of journals focused on diabetes education and routine primary care, they remained heavily underrepresented in senior academic, editorial, and leadership roles, received a significantly lower share of research grants, and led only 2 of 18 major diabetes research centers. [1]
“Women are broadly underrepresented in scientific leadership positions, and their accomplishments are not provided equal recognition compared with those of men….”
The statistics echoed the status of women in other professions. That year, a group of women leaders and their allies decided to address this disparity by organizing an association focused on sponsoring and promoting women, highlighting the issues diabetes researchers face, and providing career development and networking opportunities. It’s called WIELD, Women Inspiring and Elevating Leadership in Diabetes.
WIELD bills itself as:
“An advocacy group of professionals with interest in diabetes and obesity causes, complications, and comorbidities, who have a goal to increase the visibility of, and leadership representation by, women in our field.”
Additionally, it showcases the work of high-ranking “trailblazers” who have made notable contributions to research on diabetes, metabolism, and obesity. The designation is not subjective; researcher trailblazers must have authored more than 150 highly cited publications. Their website lists 74 women who have met these lofty standards.
Among these are:
- Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, DMSc — who has had a transformative impact on diabetes treatment. As the co-inventor of liraglutide and a key scientific leader in developing semaglutide, she helped transform GLP-1 biology into highly effective treatments for type 2 diabetes and obesity. For these contributions to GLP-1 research, she received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
- Frances Ashcroft, PhD — who identified the critical role of ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels in insulin secretion and helped establish how these channels link glucose metabolism to insulin release, transforming treatment for neonatal patients by showing that, in some cases, insulin injections can be replaced with oral medications.
- Melanie J. Davies, CBE, is the author of more than 980 original research articles, whose work has shaped evidence-based diabetes treatment recommendations internationally, influencing treatment standards and clinical practice.
- Dr. Barbara Kahn pioneered research that defined how insulin sensitivity is regulated in obesity and diabetes, opening doors to novel metabolic therapeutics. Her lab investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying these conditions, including the regulation of insulin sensitivity, adipocyte biology, and intertissue communication.
The history of diabetes research is also a story of extraordinary women whose discoveries have saved lives, transformed treatment, and expanded scientific understanding, yet whose identity often remains hidden. Their achievements remind us that scientific greatness and public recognition do not always go hand in hand, and that to get the recognition they deserve, it often takes other women working to promote them.
[1] The authors note that "the current study surveyed disparities in representation but did not assess prevalence of workplace discrimination or overt sexual harassment in diabetes research."
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Barbara Pfeffer Billauer JD MA (Occ. Health) PhD
Professor Barbara Pfeffer Billauer is an internationally recognized scholar of public health law, bioethics, and the laws of medical care, focusing on the integration of science and law and its impact on day-to-day policy and legal outcomes. She has lectured and published extensively, in scholarly journals and law reviews, and has written and edited seven books for lay and academic audiences.
