Monday's Molecule #111: Winners

 
UPDATE: I guess the hint was too much of a giveaway. The molecule is insulin from pig (Sus scrofa). Pig pancreas was the major source of insulin for diabetics before recombinant DNA. It is very similar to human insulin.

The Nobel Laureate is Fred Sanger who won in 1958 for determining the sequence of insulin. It was his first of two Noble Prizes.

The winners are David Schuller of Cornell University by one minute over Dima Klenchin, and Adam Santoro of the University of Toronto.

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Identify this molecule. Be as specific as possible, including the species. Explain why that species was chosen.

Here's a hint: 1b17.

There's are several possible Noble Prizes associated with this molecule. I'm looking for the prize that was awarded for determining the primary structure.

The first person to identify the molecule and the Nobel Laureate wins a free lunch at the Faculty Club. Previous winners are ineligible for one month from the time they first won the prize.

There are six ineligible candidates for this week's reward: Dima Klenchin of the University of Wisconsin. Alex Ling of the University of Toronto, James Fraser of the University of California, Berkeley, Guy Plunket III from the University of Wisconsin, Deb McKay of Toronto and Maria Altshuler of the University of Toronto.

Dima has offered to donate a free lunch to a deserving undergraduate so I'm going to continue to award an additional free lunch to the first undergraduate student who can accept it. Please indicate in your email message whether you are an undergraduate and whether you can make it for lunch.

THEME:

Nobel Laureates
Send your guess to Sandwalk (sandwalk (at) bioinfo.med.utoronto.ca) and I'll pick the first email message that correctly identifies the molecule and names the Nobel Laureate(s). Note that I'm not going to repeat Nobel Prizes so you might want to check the list of previous Sandwalk postings by clicking on the link in the theme box.

Correct responses will be posted tomorrow. I reserve the right to select multiple winners if several people get it right.

Comments will be blocked for 24 hours. Comments are now open.

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