Assorted

After a century, insulin is still expensive – could DIYers change that? Miniature biomanufacturing kits like this prototype could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry. Amino Labs , CC BY-ND Jenna E. Gallegos , Colorado State University and Jean Peccoud , Colorado State University Soon after Federick Banting discovered that insulin could be used to treat diabetes in 1921, he sold the patent to the University of Toronto for about a dollar. Banting received the Nobel prize because his discovery meant a life-saving drug could become widely available. Nearly a century later, an American with diabetes can pay as much as US$400 per month for insulin, driving some uninsured patients to desperate and dangerous measures. Clearly, something went wrong. Our lab studies biosecurity, so when we heard that a group of do-it-yourself biologists was working to solve the insulin affordability problem by figuring out how to manufacture insulin pate