Moses Barron (1884 – 22 December 1974) was a Russian-born American physician, pathologist, and medical researcher. He is best known for his 1920 article on the pancreatic islets of Langerhans, which directly inspired Frederick Banting's research leading to the discovery of insulin.
Early Life and Education
Barron was born in Russia in 1884 (some sources give November 8, 1883) and immigrated to the United States with his family at age five, growing up in Minnesota. He earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota in 1911.
Career
After medical school, Barron became an instructor in pathology at the University of Minnesota. During World War I, he served as a medical officer in France with the Army Medical Reserve Corps, where he was the director of the laboratory serving all ten hospitals at the Hospital Center in Allerey, France. Following the war, he returned to the University of Minnesota and became a Clinical Professor of Medicine.
Key Contribution to Diabetes Research
In 1920, Barron published a landmark paper titled "The relation of the Islets of Langerhans to Diabetes" in the journal Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics (Volume 31, No. 5, November 1920). In this article, he described changes in the pancreas after experimental ligation of the pancreatic duct or blockage of the duct by gallstones, noting the importance of the islet cells in relation to diabetes.
In October 1920, Frederick Banting read Barron's paper, which inspired Banting's subsequent research on the pancreas. This work ultimately led to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of insulin as a treatment for diabetes.
Later Career
In February 1951, Barron became the first Chief of Staff of Mount Sinai Hospital in Minneapolis, a seven-story, 197-bed facility that was the most modern hospital in the community at the time. The hospital was established in part to provide admitting privileges to Jewish physicians who had been denied them at other city hospitals, and it was the first private non-sectarian hospital in the community to accept members of minority races on its medical staff. Barron retired as professor emeritus in 1952.
Death
Moses Barron died on December 22, 1974.
