THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

( "Boon to diabetics: lab
discovers 'first' in insulin production"

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Friday, October 20, 1918 25

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"Lab yields new form of insulin"

DUARTE, Calif. — (UPI) — In a development that could affect millions of diabetics, a team of
scientists reported the first production of human insulin in laboratory bacteria serving as hormone
"factories."
The report was followed by the announcement that Eli Lilly and Co. of Indianapolis plans to
manufacture and market human insulin made with the new bacterial process.
_
Laboratory production of the hormone means that persons suffering from diabetes will have a
plentiful supply of insulin for injections when needed. The insulin now being used is extracted from
the pancreas of slaughtered cattle and pigs.
Dr. Keeichi Itakura, one of the City of Hope Medical Center researchers who announced the new
development, said that, while the human population is increasing rapidly with an associated increase
in diabetics, the animal population is decreasing.
"The insulin shortage becomes more severe every year," he said "There are about 6 million
known diabetics in the United States alone and about 1 million require insulin."
The development, a major genetic engineering feat, used the recently, developed techniques by
which genes are created artificially and then combined with the hereditary material of laboratory
variants of the common bacteria, E. coli.
The product, when extracted and purified, is chemically identical to the insulin produced by the
human pancreas.
"We've managed to trick E. coli b -acteria into making human insulin," Dr. Arthur Riggs, one of
the researchers, said in an interview.
It took a year, beginning last September until the final product." s
"It's a tremendous breakthrough," said Joan Hoover, executive director of the Washington
affiliate of the American Diabetes Association. "It will help the problems of insulin supply and be of
great value to diabetics."

4 4

"

USing man-made genes to change bacteria into living factories that produce human insulin is an
achievement that could greatly benefit many of the world's, 100 million diabetics.

Businessmen's Group

CITY OF HOPE

Proudly Commemorates It's 66th Annual Dinner-Dance
In Honor Of The Great Insulin Breakthrough At City of Hope

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1978
Fairlane Manor

Hubbard Drive — Dearborn

Black Tie

Cocktails: 5:30 p.m.

. Dinner: 7:00 p.m.

Entertainment by

FRED ROMAN

Comedian Of The Stars

Music By

HAL GORDON and his orchestra

O

For your invitation

call

-

569-4422 or 569-6262

Dinner Dance Chairman: Andrew R. Miller
Businessmen's Group, City of Hope, Executive Committee
Gerald L. Portney, chairman
Norman Allan, Harry N. Brodsky,
Ben Goldberg, Andrew R. Miller
Herbert L. Rechter, Ronald Licht

10'

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