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Card 5 / 7:
Today, it is possible for a diabetic patient to purchase human insulin from a pharmacist. What technology makes this possible and why is it a benefit over how things used to be?
The human insulin comes from the gene that produces insulin in humans, which has been spliced into a bacterial genome using recombinant DNA technology. The bacterium produces the insulin, which is then purified for human use. Before there was genetically engineered human insulin, diabetics were given insulin extracted from pig pancreases, which was similar to, but not exactly like, human insulin. Because it was not exactly like human insulin, the pig insulin caused complications in some diabetic patients.
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