Interviewee: David Goeddel. David Goeddel was one of the first scientists Herb Boyer hired for the insulin project. Here, David Goeddel talks about Genentech's general strategy for synthesizing insulin. (DNAi Location: Manipulation > Production > Players > Herbert Boyer > The steps to insulin)

The Genentech approach to the insulin project was to ultimately create a gene that could be recognized by bacteria and produce human insulin. We had three major steps to do that is how we divided the program. The first step was the chemical synthesis of the gene itself, and assembling it; the second step was to take the chemically synthesized gene and to clone it and by that means insert it into bacteria in a way that the gene can be replicated in producing unlimited quantities. And the third step is the production or manufacturing step, which is really coaxing the bacteria into recognizing this sequence and actually producing the final product, the human insulin.

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