Sugar fix

“Insulin does not belong to me. It belongs to the world…”

Frederick Banting

Adelaide Uni medical graduates will have strong memories of the old Edward Stirling lecture theatre. Stirling’s protege and successor as Professor of Biochemistry and Physiology was the more obscure Thorburn Brailsford Robertson. In typical Adelaide fashion, Robertson also married Stirling’s daughter Jane. After his appointment to the chair in 1919, Robertson began a stinging campaign to improve research facilities in Australian Universities. Eventually, after a large grant from the John Darling family, this world class medical research and teaching centre was designed and built by Woods Bagot in 1922. The cost was 16 pence per square foot. Early work at this site initiated by Robertson and in collaboration with the Gepps Cross abattoir, led to the first meaningful production of insulin in the world. By the end of 1923, over 40,000 doses of insulin had been produced in this building. For those with the then lethal diagnosis of juvenile diabetes, this was a game changer. #standingwithflorey #letsmakelemonade