Published here for the first time on the web is the historically significant Ph. D. thesis of Dr. Peter Joseph Moloney "On the Purification of Insulin".
A list of research projects from 1954-1955 gives a valuable insight into the productive work of Dr. Moloney. In 1955, he proved that insulin was an antigen. Pictured here in 1971 with Charles Best and Pauline McGibbon, the Chancellor of University of Toronto, Dr. Moloney had just been granted an honorary doctor of Laws degree on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of insulin.
Made assistant Director of Connaught Labs. First Diphtheria Toxoid production in the world was in Canada at Connaught, by Dr. Moloney with C. B. Weld. Of equal importance was the reaction test Moloney developed for those previously exposed to the disease, before widespread use could begin. The Moloney Test was used to detect a high degree of sensitivity to diphtheria toxoid, in which diluted toxoid is given intradermally. First use was 6 Canadian provinces, mainly Ontario, October 1925. The US and Britain were not enthusiastic to use the toxoid. Fitzgerald and others from Connaught had to present the information in person outside Canada. Moloney's reaction test eased concerns for the US in the mid 1930s but Britain resisted until WWII.
Dr. Peter J. Moloney earned an MA in Chemistry from the University of Toronto, was engaged in the Food Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa and in 1919, was appointed research chemist in the Connaught Laboratories. His first studies were of diphtheria toxin and after receiving his PhD in 1923, began work on the purification of insulin for its clinical use. Dr. Moloney was given the responsibility of preparing diphtheria toxoid for Connaught Laboratories in 1924, making its early use possible in Canada. He was Assistant Director of Connaught until 1955 and contributed to the development of the so-called "reaction test" for diphtheria toxoid.
After being only a short time at Cutter Laboratory, Berkeley, Moloney decided to take the offer of a job at Ottawa, for the Government at the Experimental Farms. He went there in August 1916. His outstanding work there involved a very simple method of separating hippuric acid from urine of cows and then purifying into crystals, and from it, obtaining benzoic acid and glycine, an amino acid. The clear colorless solution [of hippuric acid] yielded long white needle-like crystals and these could be broken into benzoic acid and glycine. To note, proteins are made up of amino acids, according to the nature of the animal or plant. Insulin, which would prove to occupy an important place in Moloney's scientific research, contains 51 amino acids.
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