Overview

Before the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. One hundred years after a milestone medical discovery, Insulin - The Crooked Timber tells the story of how insulin was transformed from what one clinician called thick brown muck into the very first drug to be produced using genetic engineering, one which would earn the founders of the US biotech company Genentech a small fortune. Yet when Canadian doctor Frederick Banting was told in 1923 that he had won the Nobel Prize for this life-saving discovery, he was furious. For the prize had not been awarded to him alone--but jointly with a man whom he felt had no right to this honor. Taking the listener on a fascinating journey, starting with the discovery of insulin in the 1920s through to the present day, Insulin - The Crooked Timber reveals a story of monstrous egos, toxic career rivalries, and a few unsung heroes such as two little known scientists whose work on wool fibers, carried out in a fume-filled former stable, not only proved to be crucial in unravelling the puzzle of insulin but ushered in a revolution in biology.

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Kersten Hall graduated with an honors degree in biochemistry from St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, and completed a PhD in gene regulation in adenoviruses before working for the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds. He then hung up his lab coat and began to write about science. His book The Man in the Monkeynut Coat tells the story of pioneering physicist William Astbury whose research into wool fibers led him to make the very first studies of the structure of DNA. The book was shortlisted for the 2015 British Society for the History of Science Dingle Prize and was featured on a list of Books of 2014 in the Guardian. He is currently a visiting fellow in the School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at the University of Leeds where his research concerns the history of molecular biology, but after a shocking diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes ten years ago he turned to the story of insulin. Mike Cooper is a British voice artist based in the United States. In addition to a wide variety of voice-over work he has narrated audiobooks including The Divine Spark, The Magician's Way, and The Last Shaman.

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