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Model of Pig Insuline

Author: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

Date: Model built in 1967; photo taken in 2004

Description: Insulin, a protein hormone that is produced in the pancreas and regulates the metabolism of glucose, fats and proteins, was discovered by Frederick Banting and his student Charles Best. Later, the X-ray crystallographer Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was able to fully establish its tridimensional complex molecular structure. The two chains that make up insulin are shown in this model. The larger balls represent zinc atoms that were introduced chemically as a reference to help to decode the rest. Each monomer is composed of 51 amino acid units, containing about 256 atoms of carbon, 381 of hydrogen, 65 of nitrogen, 76 of oxygen and 6 of sulfur!

Source: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I052/10320686.aspx

 

Image and caption provided by: Raquel Gonçalves Maia, CFCUL

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Uploaded on January 12, 2010
Taken on January 12, 2010