Word: insulin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
There was an immediate-and surprising-payoff. Yalow and Berson found that most adult diabetics did not have a shortage of the hormone insulin in their blood. Rather, it was present in abundance; only its sugar-metabolizing action was somehow blocked. Subsequently, Yalow and others developed similar RIAS for detecting human growth hormone, hepatitis virus and other biological substances. Today the RIA technique is used by labs around the world...
Researchers at the University of California have apparently already broken strict Federal rules recently designed to curb the potential biological hazards of recombinant DNA research. The California violation occurred in a well publicized experiment culminating last May when researchers inserted the rat gene that controls insulin production into bacteria that had not been certified for use in DNA experiments. The experiment created no hazard and researchers claim they destroyed it as soon as they realized their error. They later completed the experiment with certified bacteria...
...experiment generated a great deal of interest because it hints of a possible future use of recombinant DNA research to produce human insulin, needed especially for treatment of diabetes...
...edition of The Crimson, Laurie Hays cites the charges of unnamed Harvard scientists "that because Cambridge opponents delayed construction of a P-3 facility, used to contain hazardous experimentation, a team of researchers from the University of California was able to create insulin though recombinant DNA experimentation before the Harvard researchers could do so." The title of the article perhaps best sums up the attitude of these scientists who wish to remain unidentified: "DNA Results Irk Harvard Scientists...
...sorry Harvard did not make the insulin breakthrough. The scientists are part of our community and we are proud of their accomplishments. But M.I.T. is part of our community, too, and a 20 minute bus ride will take any Harvard scientist to the P-3 lab at M.I.T. Let's hope M.I.T. will share their facility in order to contribute to knowledge. And let's not forget that the larger community is footing the bill for this research and not only has the right to know what is going on, it has the right to say no if it deems...