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Insulin

The hormone ¹ insulin was one of the first hormones discovered. Its amino acid sequence was described in 1922, for which the investigators Banting and Best received the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine.

**Figure 1:** The structure of insulin, insulin is a protein made in one chain which folds over and the start is joined to the end with disulphide bonds (two suphur atoms). A part of the chain (denoted c)is cut out leaving the rest.
$\begin{figure}\begin{verbatim}AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAcccccccccc \vert \... ... BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBcccccccccc\end{verbatim}\par\par\end{figure}$

The hormone is made in one chain, which is looped over and a bit `c' is chopped out.

Adrian P. Ireland 2003-07-01