BioCoder #10

Chapter 5. Open Insulin and Open Source Biologics

Anthony Di Franco and the Open Insulin team

In last year’s BioCoder, I wrote in “Superseding Institutions in Science and Medicine” about possible avenues for biohackers to address shortcomings in the state of diabetes treatment as well as broader problems. Today, I’m pleased to be able to report some progress on one front: at Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, we’ve started a project to make open-source insulin. Progress in synthetic biology during the 40-odd years since the first industrial protocols were developed means we have new possibilities to pursue to make a new synthesis protocol that’s simpler, faster, cheaper, and hopefully better suited to use both in further biohacking and generic production.

Technical Overview

Insulin is a bit strange.

Isaac Yonemoto, who spends most of his time working on a promising new cancer treatment in Project Marilyn, advised us on the biochemistry of insulin and strategies we might pursue to make it, which was one of the key events that made the project possible. The short version of the story is this: the active, final form of insulin comes from cutting and folding the proinsulin protein. Proinsulin consists of three chains, by convention called A, B, and C. The C chain must be cut out, and the A and B chains brought together to form disulfide bonds, to produce active insulin. (The C chain is also known as “C peptide,” which may or may not have a biological function. Its presence is used ...