Abel, John Jacob (1857-1938), was an American biochemist who made several important discoveries about the chemicals produced by the human body. He pioneered research into the endocrine glands and laid the foundations for the treatment of kidney failure by means of dialysis. See Gland (Endocrine glands) ; Human body (The endocrine system) ; Kidney (Kidney diseases) .
John Jacob Abel was born on May 19, 1857, in Cleveland. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1883, he traveled widely in Europe. In 1893, he became the first professor of pharmacology (the science of drugs) at Johns Hopkins University. He remained a professor there until his retirement in 1932.
In 1892, Abel noticed carbonic acid in horse urine and connected it with the production of the chemical urea. He was the first scientist to determine the relative molecular mass of cholesterol and its derivative cholic acid. Relative molecular mass is a measure of the amount of matter in a molecule. An older term for the measure is molecular weight. Abel’s best-known discovery came in 1897, with the isolation from the adrenal gland of the powerful hormone adrenalin (also called epinephrine). Unfortunately, Abel could not obtain a consistently pure set of samples. However, the Japanese-born American chemist Jokichi Takamine crystallized adrenalin as an ammonium salt in 1902. See Epinephrine .
In 1914, Abel attached a cellophane bag to an artery to demonstrate that a chemical called salicylic acid could be diffused (transferred) out of the blood at a rate similar to that achieved by the action of a kidney. This experiment laid the foundation of dialysis as a treatment for kidney disease. In 1927, a research team led by Abel crystallized insulin, showed that it was a protein, and confirmed its ability to lower blood sugar levels. Abel died in Baltimore on May 26, 1938.
