biologically produced insulin starts as a monomeric protein (meaning it only consists of one string of amino acids) called preproinsulin. this amino acid chain must interact with itself to form stabilizing interactions and disulfide bonds.<p>once these disulfide linkages are created, this insulin precursor undergoes a multi step enzymatic cleavage which cuts off some bits and makes biologically active insulin.<p>There are many ways to create insulin synthetically, and some of them lead to product contaminated with misfolded proteins. Misfolded proteins may have no effect, but sometimes they can activate the IGF-1 signal pathway which has been associated with cancer. There is also a chance of an autoimmmune reaction to the misfolded insulin, which would also be very bad.<p>We are exploring a few different methods for our insulin production specifically with this concern in mind.