July - September 2021, Volume 17, Issue 3

Bentia D, Saceleanu MV, Marinescu AA, Ciurea AV

Centenary of Insulin Discovery (1921-2021): Nicolae Paulescu’s Original Contributions

Acta Endo (Buc) 2021, 17 (3): 406-411
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2021.406

Nicolae Paulescu (1869-1930) was born in Bucharest in an aristocratic family. His education from childhood to maturity (Paris University of Medicine) was marked by illustrious professors, even pioneers of their field. After completing his medical and scientific education in Paris under his mentor, Etienne Lancereaux, considered the founder of modern physiology, he returned to Romania where he founded the first Department of Physiology at “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy. His scientific career is marked by the publishing of 88 original research articles in renown international medical journals of the time and two Treatise on Physiology (comprising in total 8 volumes and 5976 pages). His activity as an endocrinologist reaches the peak with the discovery of insulin with the article Recherche sur le rôle du pancréas dans l’assimilation nutritive published in the Archives Internationales de Physiologie (Liege, Belgium) on August 31st, 1921. While he was not internationally or even nationally acclaimed for the discovery of insulin, his contribution to the reformation of the national education and medical system and the recommendation of his students to pioneers of their fields of interest still have reverberations even today.

Keywords: insulin, history of medicine, endocrinology, Nicolae Paulescu.

Correspondence: Mircea Vicentiu Saceleanu MD, PhD, “Lucian Blaga” University, “Victor Papilian” Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, Emergency County Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Sibiu, Romania, E-mail: vicentiu.saceleanu@gmail.com