John Jacob Abel

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

Born to George M. and Mary (Becker) Abel near Cleveland, Ohio, John Jacob Abel was born in 1857. He earned his Ph.B. from the University of Michigan where he studied with Henry Sewall in 1883. But, during this time he took several years off as a principal of the high school in La Porte, Indiana. There, he taught many subjects ranging from chemistry and physics to Latin. He then went to Johns Hopkins University, where he studied under Henry Newell Martin, a cardiac physiologist and professor of biology. He then left for Europe, starting in Leipzig studying medical sciences, then traveling to Strasbourg where he received was about to receive his Ph.D, but instead decided to receive an M.D. in 1888.

After his doctorate, Abel worked mostly in clinical studies and took clinical courses, focusing on biochemistry and pharmacology. He traveled around Europe, mostly in Germany and central Europe, conducting research in biochemistry. During this time, Abel had a number of mentors that inspired his work and exposed him to a number of disciplines that eventually prompted him to work in biochemistry and pharmacology. Starting in 1884, Abel worked with doctors Ludwig von Frey in physiology and histology, Boeh in pharmacology, Strumpell in pathology, and Wislicenus in organic and inorganic chemistry. All of this work was done in Leipzig until 1886, when Abel moved on to Strassburg, where he again worked in various fields: internal medicine with Kussmaul, and V. Rechlinghausen in infectious disease and pathology. Eventually, Abel moved back to Strassburg where he worked more with Schmeidberg among others. Schmeidberg, however, sparked his interest in pharmacological research. Lastly, he worked in a biochemical laboratory in Berne, where he met one Cushny, who eventually worked with him at Michigan.

All of these backgrounds that Abel has show how well rounded and knowledgeable he was in various aspects of medicine. Abel knew how to work clinically and in laboratory, and working with this many knowledgable scientists sparked his interest in research and lead to his later discoveries. Without this extensive background in medicine, he would not have achieved the same amount of success.

Finishing his time in Europe, Abel returned to the university of Michigan as the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. There, he was able to essentially create the first Department of Pharmacology and become the first professor of pharmacology. He only was at the University of Michigan until 1893, when William Osler of Johns Hopkins Medical School asked Abel to come to the school and accept a Professorship of Pharmacology.

At Johns Hopkins, Abel was chair of pharmacology and biological chemistry, until the departments split in 1908, when Abel became the chair solely of the Department of Pharmacology. At Johns Hopkins, Abel performed his most groundbreaking research and held the position of chair of the department until he retired at the age of 75 in 1932. While at Hopkins, Abel also founded the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1805 and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 1909.

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 skepticism 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.

He married Mary Hinman in 1883.