Translations:Insulin/76/en

The first genetically engineered, synthetic "human" insulin was produced using E. coli in 1978 by Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope in collaboration with Herbert Boyer at Genentech. Genentech, founded by Swanson, Boyer and Eli Lilly and Company, went on in 1982 to sell the first commercially available biosynthetic human insulin under the brand name Humulin. The vast majority of insulin used worldwide is biosynthetic recombinant "human" insulin or its analogues. Recently, another approach has been used by a pioneering group of Canadian researchers, using an easily grown safflower plant, for the production of much cheaper insulin.