E. Dale Abel facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Evan Dale Abel
Abel lectures at the National Institutes of Health in 2018
Born	1963 (age 61–62)
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)

Evan Dale Abel (born 1963) is an American doctor who studies hormones and glands. He is the head of the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Abel studies how diabetes can cause heart problems. He is a respected member of the American Heart Association and the American College of Physicians. In 2022, he was chosen to be a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which is a very high honor for scientists.

Early Life and Education

Evan Dale Abel grew up in Jamaica. He went to Wolmer's High School for Boys. His parents encouraged him to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. He chose to study medicine at the University of the West Indies.

After that, he went to the University of Oxford in England. There, he earned his advanced degree in how the body works (physiology). He also worked as a medical intern in surgery and children's health at the University of the West Indies. Later, he finished his training in internal medicine at Northwestern University in the United States.

Research and Career

In 1992, Dr. Abel began a special research program at Harvard Medical School. He focused on diabetes. He later joined the teaching staff at Harvard. He helped lead a training program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

He worked with another scientist, Barbara Kahn. Together, they learned about how fat cells use sugar. They studied a protein called glucose transporter (GLUT4). This protein helps sugar get into cells. They found out how it relates to insulin resistance, which is when the body doesn't use insulin properly.

In 2000, Dr. Abel moved to the University of Utah. He started as an Assistant Professor and later became a full Professor of Medicine. The National Institutes of Health supported his work. He developed special mice to study diabetes. He wanted to understand how sugar gets into cells. He used a method called conditional gene targeting. This allowed him to turn off specific genes in heart muscle cells. This made the heart cells unable to take in sugar. This helped him study how lack of sugar affects the heart.

In 2013, Dr. Abel became the head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa. He continued to study how diabetes causes heart failure. He also looked into how diabetes affects blood clotting. He found that in diabetic mice, blood cells called platelets take in more sugar. This makes them too active and causes too much clotting.

In 2022, Dr. Abel moved to the University of California, Los Angeles. He is now the head of the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Awards and Honors

Dr. Abel has received many awards for his important work:

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