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: https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/
Jacob’s blog: https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/
Subscribe to the Works in Progress print magazine: https://worksinprogress.co/print/
Books:
- Genentech: The beginnings of biotech by Sally Smith Hughes
Articles:
Podcasts:
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
