Genetics

Synthesized DNA and the Genetic Code  In last year's CONTEMPO,¹ I hinted at the exciting and profound impact that recombinant DNA research might have on our practice of medicine. Shortly thereafter the news broke that a team of scientists from the City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, Calif; the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF); and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif, had successfully obtained a human peptide hormone—somatostatin—from the bacterium Escherichia coli.² This team was composed of Arthur D. Riggs, PhD; Keiichi Itakura, PhD; Roberto Crea, PhD; Tadaaki Hirose, PhD; Herbert L. Heyneker, PhD; Francisco Bolivar, PhD; and Herbert W. Boyer, PhD. Now the City of Hope and UCSF components of the team have been able to obtain the α- and β-peptides of insulin from the same organism.³ Two such triumphs within little more than one year must be considered a scientific achievement