The Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement Award is the highest scientific award of the American Diabetes Association. Given in memory of Sir Frederick Banting, a medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate who is noted as one of the key investigators in the discovery of insulin, the Banting Medal is awarded annually to honor highly meritorious career achievement in the field of diabetes research. The recipient is chosen by the National Medicine, Science and Health Care Awards Committee and approved by the Executive Committee of the American Diabetes Association.

The recipient of this year’s Banting Medal for Scientifc Achievement Award was Daniel J Drucker, MD Professor of Medicine at Mt.Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada who described his 3 decades of work on the glucagon gene titled ‘Deciphering Metabolic Messages from the Gut Drives Therapeutic Innovation’. In his lecture, he elaborated the emergence of GLP-1, GLP-2 receptor agonists and DPP-4 inhibitors as a potential new treatment options for diabetes, short bowel syndrome and their future use in other therapeutic areas.