Development of the Insulin Radioimmunoassay, the Watershed Moment in Diabetes Research: Revisiting 1960 Diabetes Classics by Berson and Yalow

Abstract

The discovery and development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) for insulin by Berson and Yalow fundamentally changed biomedical science. The story of this accomplishment began with the pairing of brilliant scientists with complementary expertise who identified a key gap in knowledge they were able to bridge through a series of insightful experiments. Through a succession of important publications over 5 years of work, Berson and Yalow refined the approach to a novel method to measure insulin and demonstrated the power of this method in convincing clinical studies. This culminated in 1960, with three independent papers introducing the insulin RIA and demonstrating the utility in measuring circulating insulin in healthy and diseased states. Two of these papers were published in Diabetes—classics that are revisited here.