Apparently, diabetes has a rich history. Sushruta of 6th century BC India was a surgeon who discovered that diabetics had glucose in the urine, and he furthermore distinguished between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. That's pretty amazing to me. (In other news, he's also known as the father of plastic surgery because he invented rhinoplasty, the repair of a disfigured nose because criminals at the time were punished by nose amputation).
In trying to characterize diabetes, Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering in 1889 removed a pancreas from a dog and discovered that it got diabetes. The professor giving the lecture remarked that this was "gene knockout technology of the day; you take out organs and see what happens." Funny way of looking at things.
I finally managed to wade through all the biochemistry. I have to admit, the abridged version is not as fun. We only cover the key points in each metabolic pathway. Medical school doesn't have the time (nor would it be justified) for us to delve into the biochemistry and organic chemistry principles. So this time around, things feel like a lot of memorization for me.
(Image: Sushruta performing plastic surgery)
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