John Jacob Abel

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

Born near Cleveland, Ohio, he graduated with a Ph.D. 1883 from the University of Michigan. 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.

Further reading

• Rosenberg, Charles. "Abel, John Jacob." in Dictionary of Scientific Biography. (1970). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Vol. 1: p.9-12.

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