Publisher's Synopsis
This is a short simple book on how Insulin was made. The original 1922 method of making Insulin saved the lives of hundreds of Jews in China during World War II. Eva was a self-taught maker of insulin and an advocate for people with diabetes. Eva and her husband were born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. During World War II she and her husband fled to Shanghai, China. Since the discovery of insulin in 1922 by a team of Canadian researchers, making insulin for the treatment of diabetes has always depended on living organisms. Before the advent of biotechnology, the organisms used were the pigs and cows destined for our dinner plates-specifically, their pancreas glands, a waste product of the meatpacking industry. Pig or cow pancreas was needed to extract purified insulin. Lucky for us, both pork- and beef-derived insulin are nearly identical to human insulin and can be utilized by our bodies to convert the carbohydrates we eat into energy.
