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

Born near Cleveland, Ohio, he founded and chaired in 1891 the first department of pharmacology in the United States at the University of Michigan. In 1893, he went on to establish and chair the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University (one of the many schools at which he was educated). In 1897, he was the first to isolate epinephrine, also known as adrenaline. 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 founded the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1905 and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 1909.

American biochemists | American pharmacologists | 1857 births | 1938 deaths

John Jacob Abel | John Jacob Abel