Evan Dale Abel
Abel lectures at the National Institutes of Health in 2018
Born	1963 (age 60–61)
Alma mater	University of the West Indies University of Oxford
Scientific career
Institutions	Northwestern University University of Iowa University of Utah
Thesis	Insulin and blood pressure (1990)
Website	Abel Lab

Evan Dale Abel (born 1963) is an American endocrinologist who serves as Chair of the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His works on the molecular mechanisms that underpin cardiac failure in diabetes. He is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American College of Physicians. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.^[1]

Early life and education

Abel is from Jamaica,^[2] where he attended Wolmer's High School for Boys. He was encouraged by his parents to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer.^[2] He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies, where he specialised in medicine. He completed his doctoral research in physiology at the University of Oxford. He was a medical intern in surgery and paediatrics at the University of the West Indies, before completing his residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University.^[3]

Research and career

Abel started a clinical research fellowship in diabetes at Harvard Medical School in 1992.^[4] He then joined the faculty at Harvard, where he was appointed co-Director of the fellowship programme at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.^[4] He worked alongside Barbara Kahn, with whom who identified the relationship between adipose tissue glucose transporter (GLUT4) and insulin resistance. He was recruited to the faculty at the University of Utah in 2000, first as Assistant Professor and eventually as Professor of Medicine.^[4] Abel was supported by the National Institutes of Health to develop a mouse model of diabetes. He studied how glucose is delivered to cells.^[5] He made use of conditional gene targeting to induce genetic defects that resulted in heart muscle cells being incapable of taking up glucose.^[5]

In 2013 Abel moved to the University of Iowa as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine.^[3][6][7] His works on the molecular mechanisms that underpin cardiac failure in diabetes.^[3] He has investigated how diabetes impacts the formation of blood clots; with the increased glucose uptake of platelets in diabetic mice promoting overactivation and excess clotting.^[8]

In 2022 Abel moved to the University of California, Los Angeles as Chair of the Department of Medicine in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.^[9]

Awards and honors

• 1986 Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford^[10][11]
• 1996 Harvard Medical School Eleanor and Miles Shore, 50th Anniversary Scholars in Medicine Fellowship^[12]
• 1999 Harvard Medical School Excellence in Teaching Award^[12]
• 2001 American Thyroid Association Van Meter Award^[13]
• 2001 David W. Haack Memorial Award in Cardiovascular Research^[12]
• 2003 Established Investigator of the American Heart Association^[14]
• 2012 Meharry Medical College James Pulliam Memorial Lectureship^[10]
• 2012 Endocrine Society Gerald D. Aurbach Award Lecture^[4]
• 2013 Elected Fellow of the American Heart Association^[10]
• 2015 University of Tennessee Health Science Center the Max Miller Lecture
• 2015 Elected to the National Academy of Medicine^[15]
• 2018 NIH Director's Astute Clinician Lecture^[16][17]
• 2018 African American Museum of Iowa History Makers Award^[18]
• 2020 Selected as President-Elect of the Association of Professors of Medicine^[19]
• 2020 Named by Cell Press as one of the most inspirational Black scientists in the United States.^[20]

Selected publications

• Boudina, Sihem; Abel, E. Dale (2007-06-26). "Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Revisited". Circulation. 115 (25): 3213–3223. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.106.679597. ISSN 0009-7322. PMID 17592090.
• Abel, E. Dale; Peroni, Odile; Kim, Jason K.; Kim, Young-Bum; Boss, Olivier; Hadro, Ed; Minnemann, Timo; Shulman, Gerald I.; Kahn, Barbara B. (2001). "Adipose-selective targeting of the GLUT4 gene impairs insulin action in muscle and liver". Nature. 409 (6821): 729–733. doi:10.1038/35055575. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 11217863. S2CID 4405220.
• Boudina, Sihem; Abel, Evan Dale (2010). "Diabetic cardiomyopathy, causes and effects". Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders. 11 (1): 31–39. doi:10.1007/s11154-010-9131-7. ISSN 1389-9155. PMC 2914514. PMID 20180026.

References