You are well on your way through embryogenesis!

Your single cell has divided and divided again to become many cells, which move around inside your eggshell to produce different layers

Insulin

Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy Hodgkin completed her PhD at Cambridge where she worked at the Cavendish Laboratory which used to be based here along Free School Lane.

During her career, Hodgkin identified the structures of several key medicinal compounds including penicillin, insulin, and vitamin B12, by developing a technique called X-ray Crystallography.

This was an essential step in allowing these compounds to be mass produced and they are now widely used across medicine today.

Dorothy Hodgkin is to date the only British female scientist to have been awarded the Nobel prize.

Insulin Research Today

Fruit fly brain showing neural stem cells in red and the insulin receptor in green. Dividing cells are marked in white. (Imaged by Maire Brace)

Since Hodgkin’s research into the structure of insulin, the treatment of diabetes has advanced significantly. However, there remain many unanswered questions about the biology of insulin signalling.

Released from the pancreas in response to raised blood sugar after a meal, insulin has many roles, including in growth, metabolism, and cell division.

Researchers at the Gurdon institute discovered that in the fruit fly brain, insulin wakes up dormant neural stem cells causing them to start producing new brain cells. This is exciting as it might have implications for the treatment of brain disorders and injuries in the future.

  • From start to finish,

    new to old

    Count the years

    these walls saw

    a scientist first open

    then close the door

  • How many years was the Cavendish Laboratory open?

* This answer is a number (not text).

“I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals”

— Dorothy Hodgkin, aged 10, from ‘A Life: Dorothy Hodgkin’ by G. Ferry.