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Originally Posted by Lisa Winter, The Scientist, April 14 2022
Arthur Riggs, whose work with recombinant DNA led to the development of synthetic insulin, has died from complications of lymphoma. He was 82.
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Born in California on August 8, 1939, Riggs spent his childhood in San Bernardino. His father managed a trailer park and his mother, a nurse, bought Arthur his first chemistry set as a child, inspiring a love of science from a young age. “I thoroughly enjoyed mixing reagents and getting changes in color and carbon dioxide release,” Riggs told PNAS for a 2010 profile. “That and reading science fiction got me enthusiastic about science in junior high school.”
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In 1969, Riggs took a position at City of Hope, a nonprofit organization in Duarte, California, where researchers investigate treatments for diabetes, cancer, and more. In the mid-1970s, he partnered with a small biotech startup and used recombinant DNA to fuse DNA encoding synthetic peptides to E. coli’s lactase gene, ultimately resulting in the production of a protein akin to a mammalian hormone. Following this proof of concept, the approach was used to make snippets of human insulin. At the time, diabetes was treated using cow insulin, which was less than ideal as it caused allergic reactions in many patients. Riggs’s technique paved the way for the development of synthetic human insulin, which was approved by the FDA in 1982 as a diabetes drug under the tradename Humulin.
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Riggs amassed a considerable fortune from the royalties on his patents, though The New York Times reports that Riggs wasn’t flashy with money and stayed in the same home for more than 50 years. He was a big spender, however, when it came to City of Hope, to which he quietly and anonymously donated money for years. After his final nine-figure donation in January 2021, he revealed that his lifetime total contribution exceeded $310 million.
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