Abel, John J.

Abel, John J. (Jacob) (1857–1938) biochemist, physiologist; born near Cleveland, Ohio. He studied at Johns Hopkins (1883–84) and in Europe (1884–91), taught at the University of Michigan (1891–93), then returned to Johns Hopkins as a professor of pharmacology (1893–1932), remaining active until his death. He founded several professional journals and made major advances in the fields of endocrinology, toxicology, and tetanus research. His experiments on dialysis of amino acids in blood through cellophane (1914) led to his proposal for construction of an artificial kidney. He is best known for first isolating and naming the adrenal hormone epinephrine (1897), and for his crystallization and analysis of insulin (1927).