IIT-Guwahati researchers develop method to produce human insulin

Guwahati, Sep 12 (PTI) Researchers at IIT-Guwahati have developed a new method to produce human insulin, which could play a significant role in making it more affordable and accessible, the institute said on Friday.

The method uses a safe and efficient bacterial system called Pseudomonas fluorescens, it said in a statement.

The developed technology has been granted two Indian patents, and the findings of the research were published in journals, including the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules and Journal of Biotechnology.

The research team was led by Veeranki Venkata Dasu, professor and former head, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, and former director, RGUKT, Nuzvid.

In recent times, diabetes has become one of the most common health issues, affecting over 537 million adults worldwide, it said.

For patients, particularly those with type 1 and many with type 2 diabetes, insulin is a life-saving hormone.

Despite insulin’s widespread demand globally, the current methods of producing insulin are costly and often inefficient, resulting in low output and a cost-intensive purification process, the statement said.

“Creating a novel expression system for manufacturing insulin is one of the solutions. A bioprocess technology is developed using Genetic, Metabolic and Biochemical Engineering approaches for recombinant human insulin production using Pseudomonas fluorescens,” Dasu said.

“The developed expression system is not only capable of insulin production, but also opens an avenue to produce other therapeutic proteins as well as industrial enzymes,” he added.

Pseudomonas fluorescens, a bacterium known for producing proteins in a soluble form, makes the production process simpler and more affordable, the institute said.

The safety of the bacterium, combined with its ability to produce large amounts of soluble protein without harmful by-products, makes this method particularly attractive for large-scale insulin production, it said. PTI SSG RBT