History of diabetes further clarified in 1921, when Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best repeated the work of Von Mering and Minkowski, and went further to demonstrate they could reverse induced diabetes in dogs by giving them an extract from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of healthy dogs. The islets of Langerhans was discovered in 1869 by an anatomist named Paul Langerhans. He identified the keys cells in the pancreas which produce the main substance that controls glucose levels in the body. Banting, Best, and colleagues (especially the chemist Collip) went on to purify the hormone insulin from bovine pancreases at
Ryan Langerhans between the Double-A Greenville Braves and the Triple-A Richmond Braves. Langerhans was called up by the Braves in September. On September 5, in his second game of the season, Langerhans got his first major league hit coming against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite making his major league debut in 2002, Langerhans did not become an everyday big-league player until 2005, getting playing time for the Braves in all three outfield positions. He is part of the group of 18 rookie players nicknamed the "Baby Braves" that Atlanta called up from its minor league system during the 2005 season. Langerhans started 2006