Toronto Star January 5, 1924
Year of Research by Two, Young Toronto Chemists Is Crowned With Success
OF IMMENSE VALUE
May Result in Much Purer and Much Cheaper Extract- Widens Its Usefulness
After patient and painstaking re- search lasting more than a year, two graduate chemists of the University of Toronto. P. J. Maloney and D. M. Findlay, have succeeded in working out a system of purification which may greatly widen the field of usefulness of insulin extract.
A few days ago. Mr. Maloney addressed the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its convention in Cincinnati. and told its members of the results of the experiments carried on by himself and his co-worker. The method, which Connaught was worked out at the laboratories here, depends upon the removal of certain elements from insulin by placing the extract on charcoal and removing it after the charcoal has completed its reaction.
Mr. Maloney was very diffident about discussing the new method which he and his fellow chemist had evolved. "This method which is known as the fractional absorptive method of purification is used as one step in the present process of making clinical insulin." he pointed out to The Star.
Get Purer Extract
"It is quite possible that by the use of this method insulin may soon be obtained in a very much purer state than at present and possibly as a pure chemical individual." he be continued. "If this step can realized it will be a first step to- wards the synthetic production of insulin."
"What effect would that have on the medical treatment with insulin?"
"It would still further reduce the price of insulin and bring it into more general use than, it is at present. If insulin could be separated as a chemical individual it would hold potentialities for even greater usefulness than at present enjoyed."
Asked by The Star to explain the method of purification which he and Mr. Findlay had found to be be the best and most satisfactory in dealing with insulin and similar substances. Mr. Maloney stated that it was accomplished by absorption on charcoal.
"Charcoal," be explained, "has become a favorite as an absorption reagent due to the large surface offered. It was for this reason used during the war to remove poision gases from the air. In the past its main use has been to remove impurities rather than as a purification method for colloids.
"This is largely due to the difficulty of removing the absorbed substances. Often the complex may be washed copiously with water with out removing any of the absorbed material.
"In the case of insulin the removal has been accomplished by the process known as replacement."
Details of Method
This feature of replacement is really the crux of the method for purification which has been so efficiently developed by Mr. Moloney and Mr. Findlay. The replacement is effected by shaking the washed charcoal with a solution of benzoic acid dissolved in alcohol. The charcoal picks up the benzoic acid and lets go of the insulin.
The extra benzoic acid and alcohol are then separated from the insulin by well-known and long-practised chemical means."
In university circles it is believed that the two young chemists have made decided strides in work of bringing a larger quantity of clinical insulin within the reach of a larger number of sufferers, and that the matter of volume as well as greater purity will be even further developed within the next few weeks. At present it estimated that over 200,000 units of insulin are being produced every week at the Connaught laboratories.
[Headshots of P.J Moloney and D.M. Findlay]
INSULIN NOW PURIFIED
P. J. Molony, above, and D. M. Findlay, chemist at the Connaught Laboratories of the University of Toronto, who after over a year of work devised a method by which insulin can be purified to a sufficient degree for clinical purposes. The method is known in the scientific world as the fractional absorptive method. Mr. Moloney is a science student of University of Toronto class of 1905; Mr. Findlay is a science student at the U. of T. class of 1919.