User:Erfurt1234

I, Hans E. Weber, M.D. claim to have discovered preproinsulin in 1973/74 at UCLA. While being a research fellow I learned the techniques how to isolate and tranlate mRNA. I obtained pancreatic tissues from a slaughterhouse in Los Angeles and later from our own animal stock at UCLA. This enriched mRNA for insulin was used to translate it in oocytes and in-vitro procedures. With the help of anti-insulin antibodies I was able to precipitate molecules which corresponded with proinsulin and insulin. To my surprise there was also a consistent spike larger than proinsulin. In a 10 Minute talk in 1975 at the American Diabetes Association in New York I named this molecule preproinsulin. Dr. Steiner who discovered proinsulin invited me after my talk to discuss my results. A year later his lab published the sequence of the 6 amino acids comprising the pre in preproinsulin. With that the existance of this molecule was firmly established. Preproinsulin became an important molecule to study the processes of transcription and translation.