100 years of insulin in 15 minutes

A hundred years ago, insulin was scraped from pig pancreases. Today, it’s made by bacteria in giant tanks. In the second part of a mini series on proteins, drug development and AI, Saloni tells the story of how insulin went from a crude animal extract to the first genetically-engineered drug, kickstarting the biotech industry along the way.
Hard Drugs is a new podcast from Works in Progress and Open Philanthropy about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.
Saloni’s substack newsletter: scientificdiscovery.dev

Jacob’s blog: blog.jacobtrefethen.com
Books:
• Genentech: The beginnings of biotech by Sally Smith Hughes

Articles:
• FDA (2007). Celebrating a Milestone: FDA's Approval of First Genetically-Engineered Product fda.report/media/110447/Celebrating-a-Mileston…
• Genentech (2016). Cloning Insulin gene.com/stories/cloning-insulin
• Arthur Riggs (2020). Making, Cloning, and the Expression of Human Insulin Genes in Bacteria: The Path to Humulin academic.oup.com/edrv/article/42/3/374/6042201

Podcasts:
• Novo Nordisk (Ozempic) by the Acquired podcast acquired.fm/episodes/novo-nordisk-ozempic

Acknowledgements:
• Aria Babu, editor at Works in Progress
• Adrian Bradley, on-site producer
• Anna Magpie, fact-checking
• Abhishaike Mahajan, cover art
• Atalanta Arden-Miller, art direction
• David Hackett, composer
Works in Progress & Open Philanthropy