Insight Lecture Series

Injectable insulin, introduced as a life-sustaining treatment for diabetes in the early 1920s, was a miracle drug that brought inconceivable hope to young patients and their families. Behind this medical success, however, was a bitter dispute among the scientists who participated in the achievement—a historic controversy that highlights the pitfalls inherent in assigning a few individuals credit for scientific discoveries that are built on the accomplishments of many.

On Wednesday, January 29, The Rockefeller University will welcome Arthur Ainsberg, co-author of Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle, to present the first Insight Lecture of 2014. The book has been widely praised for its vivid portraits of the individuals involved in the achievement, from the scientists to a teenaged girl whose life was transformed by their work. Rockefeller Professor Jeffrey M. Friedman, who shared a Lasker Award in 2010 for his discovery of the weight-regulating hormone leptin, will discuss the underappreciated and unrecognized contributions of Rockefeller Institute scientists in insulin’s discovery and the Rockefeller family’s central role in the implementation of the new treatment.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Before insulin, diabetes patients were managed on a stringent low-carb diet developed at Rockefeller.
A Rockefeller scientist was first to show that a substance in the pancreas could reverse diabetes—work that led to the identification and purification of insulin.
• Insulin won Canada its first Nobel Prize, but the two scientists recognized did not attend the ceremony.
• John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated $150,000 in 1923 ($15 million today) to finance insulin treatment for those who could not afford it.
• Insulin sales for Eli Lilly & Co brought in $1.1 million in 1923—triple the single-year amount for any previous specialty drug sold by the company.