From 2007.igem.org

• Animal  insulin from bovine (cow) and porcine (pig)
  • human insulin is very similar to bovine and procine insulins
  • However, the sligh difference in composition causes some patients have immune response
• human insulin from E.coli
  • thus, scienetist turn to produce human insulin (Humulin) via recombinant DNA technology
  • Owing to the nature of insulin (two chain are folded separately and bound together), the two chains are carried by two different vectors
  • File:Insulin structure.jpg File:Insulin plasmid.jpg
  • Human insulin is the only animal protein to have been made in bacteria in such a way that its structure is absolutely identical to that of the natural molecule. This reduces the possibility of complications resulting from antibody production. In chemical and pharmacological studies, commercially available Recombinant DNA human insulin has proven indistinguishable from pancreatic human insulin.⁽¹²⁾ Initially the major difficulty encountered was the contamination of the final product by the host cells, increasing the risk of contamination in the fermentation broth. This danger was eradicated by the introduction of purification processes. When the final insulin product is subjected to a battery of tests, including the finest radio-immuno assay techniques,⁽¹³⁾ no impurities can be detected.⁽¹⁴⁾ The entire procedure is now performed using yeast cells as a growth medium, as they secrete an almost complete human insulin molecule with perfect three dimensional structure. This minimises the need for complex and costly purification procedures.
  • host: E.coli
  • growth media: yeast cell
  • extraction technology: radio-immuno assay
• Cell screates insulin
• reference