Synthesis of Crystalline Insulin

　　After six years of arduous work and in cooperation with other research units, the Biochemistry Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences synthesized crystalline bovine insulin, a bioactive protein, on September 17, 1965. China thus became a world leader in this research field.

　　Ninety years ago Frederick Engels pointed out in his Dialectics of Nature: "Life is the mode of existence of protein bodies." In 1965, China's scientists synthesized the smallest proteins. They have made the first important step in that direction and given a new and powerful support to the materialist dialectical theory of the origin and evolution of life.

　　China was the first in the world to successfully separate and recombine the two chains of natural insulin, the first to obtain crystalline insulin by combining the synthetic B chain with the natural A chain or by combining the synthetic A chain with the natural B chain, and the first to succeed in the total synthesis of crystalline insulin.

　　In 1982, this achievement won the top prize of China's National Natural Science.