Arthur Ainsburg
The Wistar Institute
The Wistar Institute Authors' Series
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
Arthur Ainsberg will read from and discuss his new book, BREAKTHROUGH. Following the program, he will join guests for a book signing.
In 1919, when 11-year-old Elizabeth Hughes was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, it was essentially a death sentence. The only accepted treatment—starvation—whittled her down to 45 pounds of skin and bones. It was the discovery of insulin, by Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best, that saved her life—and the lives of diabetics around the world. Breakthrough details this scientific discovery, one of the most important of our time, bringing to life those who made it happen and those whose lives were changed forever.
Arthur Ainsberg, a writer and a Wall Street executive, has experienced his own medical challenges, having been diagnosed in 1975 at the age of 28 with Hodgkin’s disease. At the time of his diagnosis, doctors had only recently developed a method of treatment that could cure the disease. His interest in medicine, born from personal experience combined with his love of history, set him on the path to writing about the ground-breaking discovery of insulin.