The Toronto scientist who pioneered GLP-1 research has frozen and kept the actual Gila monster reptile that helped him discover how the gut hormone affects humans. The medical breakthrough spearheaded by Daniel Drucker is what led to semaglutide – and Ozempic. The Gila’s venom contains a molecule called ​​exendin-4, which John Eng, a New York endocrinologist, isolated in 1990. ​​Nature had produced a compound that mimicked many of the effects of human GLP-1 but resisted the enzymes that rapidly break it down. Drucker extracted DNA from the lizard’s salivary gland and cloned the gene for exendin-4, which became the basis for exenatide, the first GLP-1 drug approved for Type 2 diabetes. “There was no eureka moment for GLP-1,” Drucker recalls. Just decades of trial and error, and the stubborn determination to keep going. #canada #medicine #glp1 #ozempic