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British Nobel prize winning scientist Dorothy Hodgkin yesterday [August 13] announced the discovery of the crystalline structure of insulin, the life saving drug used by diabetics. Dr. Hodgkin made her announcement at a Press conference held on the first day of a 10-day meeting of the Eighth International Congress of Crystallography at the State University of New York here [Stony Brook]. Scientists at the meeting believe the discovery could lead to an understanding and elimination of the side effects of insulin. It also could make possible the development of insulin by a synthetic process instead of the present costly production of the drug from natural elements. Since two Canadian scientists, Dr. Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles H. Best, isolated insulin in 1921 a search has been in progress to discover how the substance works in the body. “Biologists have a virtual blueprint for this search now that Dr. Hodgkin has discovered insulin’s crystalline structure”, Dr. Edwin Templeton, of the University of California at Berkeley said. Dr. Hodgkin said work on the discovery was carried out at research laboratories at Oxford University.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/insulins-structure-discovered/article29097741.ece
