Open-source platform spawns cheap insulin

German researchers have found a simple way to make a much cheaper version of insulin, and they have posted their work in the open access online research magazine Microbial Cell Factories. "As we did last year with an alternative protocol for the development of a hepatitis B vaccine, we again decided to use this way and make our knowledge available for everybody," says Ursula Rinas from the HZI, who chairs the German side of the project. Thus, people can access "insider-information" that makes it possible to cheaply produce medicine which in return can be affordable to people in developing countries. Story