John Jacob Abel

John Jacob Abel
Born 19 May 1857
Cleveland, Ohio
Died 26 May 1938 (1938-05-27) (aged 81)
Nationality American
Fields biochemist
pharmacologist
Institutions Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Alma mater University of Michigan
Notable awards Foreign Member of the Royal Society[1]
Willard Gibbs Award (1927)

John Jacob Abel (19 May 1857 – 26 May 1938) was an influential American biochemist and pharmacologist.

Early life

Born to George M. and Mary (Becker) Abel[2] near Cleveland, Ohio, he graduated with a B.A. in 1883 from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Henry Sewall. Abel received a M.D. at Strasburg in 1888.[3]

Career

In 1891 he founded and chaired the first department of pharmacology in the United States at the University of Michigan. In 1893, he went on to chair the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University. In 1897, he was the second to isolate epinephrine, also known as adrenaline (the first was Napoleon Cybulski in 1895), although the extracts he produced have been shown to be mostly an inactive metabolite and the first pure extracts were produced by the Japanese Jokichi Takamine (1854–1922) who patented the formulation under the name adrenalin. He later formulated the idea of the artificial kidney and in 1914 he isolated amino acids from the blood.

He spent years unsuccessfully searching for the pituitary hormone, unaware that he was in fact looking for several hormones. In 1926, he reported the isolation and crystallization of insulin, though this announcement was met with considerable scepticism and not generally accepted for many years.

Abel also co-founded the Journal of Biological Chemistry with Christian Archibald Herter in 1905 and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 1909.

Abel was one of the many students of Oswald Schmiederberg who founded pharmacology departments all over the world including Genoa, Heidelberg, Berlin, Padua, Japan, Edinburgh, and the United States. Oswald Schmiederberg was an ordinarius in pharmacology in Dorpat (1869–1872) and the University of Strassburg in France (1872–1918) and one of the major influences in the spread and development of pharmacology in the 19th century.

Private life

He married Mary Hinman in 1883.

References

  1. Dale, H. H. (1939). "John Jacob Abel. 1857-1938". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 2 (7): 577–526. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1939.0019.
  2. "Abel, John Jacob". Who Was Who Among North American Authors, 1921-1939. Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1976. p. 5. ISBN 0-8103-1041-4.
  3. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry, R. Kohler, p. 105

Bibliography

External links


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