Researched
Recombinant Human Insulin (Humulin)
From 1982 bacteria carrying the human insulin gene made insulin for people with diabetes, replacing extracts from cattle and pigs; it was the first approved medicine made by genetic engineering.
Open in the interactive tree →Genentech, founded in 1976 by Robert Swanson and Herbert Boyer, produced synthetic human insulin in E. coli bacteria in 1978, and Eli Lilly, licensed to manufacture it, won FDA approval for Humulin in 1982. Until then insulin had been taken from the pancreas of cattle and pigs. It proved that engineered microbes can make human medicines at industrial scale, the template for later hormones, for the proteins brewed by precision fermentation, and for peptide drugs such as brand-name semaglutide, which is made in genetically modified yeast.
Prerequisites
- Insulin1921The life-saving hormone whose supply this secured.
- Genetic Engineering1973The human insulin gene was put into bacteria with recombinant DNA.
Unlocks
- Precision Fermentation2020Insulin was the first protein for people brewed by engineered microbes.
- GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs2021Peptide hormone drugs are produced with the same genetic-engineering methods.