Improvements: edit
1). Include a more detailed introductory leading paragraph summarizing his main achievements, and a general overview of his biography such as his personal life, education background, etc. A more thorough lead section could offer readers a clear picture about who Abel is, and what they can expect from the wiki page.
2). Introducing more in-line and precise citations using reliable sources
3). Add a few more pictures of him if possible
4). Expand his page by introducing more solid information both about his biography and especially his career, emphasizing his significance in the history of American medicine: establishment of the the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, the isolation of insulin, epinephrine, the invention of primitive artificial kidney--precursor to dialysis machine, etc.
Lead section: (combing with Avery's work on his educational background) edit
John Jacob Abel (19 May 1857 – 26 May 1938) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. He established the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and hence became America's first full-time professor of pharmacology. [1] During his time at Hopkins, he made several important medical advancements, especially in the field of hormone extraction and kidney functions. He extracted a derivative of epinephrine, also known as adrenaline(1897)[2]. He also successfully purified and isolated crystalline insulin, revealing that its structure is in fact a protein(1926).[3] His interest in kidney functions led to his invention of a primitive artificial kidney that was able to remove toxin from blood of living animals[4], the precursor to the dialysis machine that we are using today. In addition to his laboratory work, he found significant scientific medical journals such as he Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 1908[5]
Career : edit
Ever since his early years studying in Europe, Abel showed great interest in isolating pure form of internal gland hormones, and the first work that led to his international reputation as a pharmacologist and biochemist was the isolation of epinephrine from adrenal medulla. However, he was only able to isolate a monobenzoyl derivative of epinephrine. While he was improving his processes on decomposing the benzoyl derivative to obtain salts of epinephrine using saponification, a visiting Japanese chemist to his lab, J. Takamine was able to successfully isolate neutral base of epinephrine by adding ammonium to highly concentrated extract, a method Abel himself tried but failed due to the use of low concentration of extract. After Takamine's success, Abel himself remarked, with great candor, "The efforts of years on my part in this once mysterious field of suprarenal, medullary biochemistry, marred by blunders as they were, eventuated, then, in the isolation of the hormone not in the form of the free base but in that of its monobenzoyl derivative." [6] Nevertheless, Abel overcame his disappointment, and went on with his other laboratory work passionately.
Together with L.G. Rowntree and B.B. Turner, Abel devised what they called as a "vividiffusion" apparatus, consisting of a series of tubes surrounded by fluid. They first demonstrated the apparatus at the Physiological Congress in Groningen in 1914.[6] By allowing arterial blood to enter at one end of the connection, and later return to circulation through the venous connection after dialysis, they were able to demonstrate the existence of free amino acids in blood. By isolating these amino acids from blood circulation, Abel conducted various subsequent researches on the structure of proteins in the blood. Not only did Abel used the apparatus for his research work, he also realized the great clinical potential such dialysis machine would have on managing the damaging effects of renal failure. [7] The vividiffusion apparatus Abel devised is the precursor to modern day dialysis machine.
Abel's work on insulin started with an invitation from his old friend Arthur A. Noyes at California Institute of Technology. Noyes had just received a grant from Carnegie Corporation for research on insulin, and he thought that Abel would be the right person to lead that research. After some preliminary experiments on the subject, Abel decided to take on the research, and replied his friend, "Will attack insulin. Writing. J. J. Abel." [8] Working in his usual highly dedicated manner, Abel invested the next few years on purifying insulin. While he was adopting various means to try purify insulin, he had the idea to measure sulfur content of his extracts, and found that the higher the sulfur content, the greater the activity. The discovery not only significantly precipitated the progress on extracting active fractions, but also offered the very first concrete information on the structure of insulin--sulfur is an integral part of insulin molecule.[8] Continuing with his research on extrating insulin, on November 1925, Abel finally was able to witness one of the most beautiful sights of his life, "glistening crystals of insulin forming on the sides of a test tube". [8] Although Abel's work received great compliments from the media and the science community, some doubt the purity of his crystals as the tests show that they are proteins, a result that is contrary to the dominant view at Abel's time on proteins--proteins are unlikely to have such highly specific physiological activity shown by a hormone such as insulin. It took Abel almost four years to confirm this theory to an extent that convinces his peers. [8] At the time, Abel's laboratory was no doubt the center of insulin research in the United States, and a lot of young scientists came to his lab, and worked under Abel to study the newly crystalized hormone. Abel himself gradually withdrew from the actual experimental work on insulin after the first four years, but he continued to guide the scientists in his lab to work on insulin, and to progress towards unraveling more and more about the structure of insulin molecule. Although Abel's research interest then switched to posterior pituitary, he spent years defending his research on insulin through an enormous amount of correspondences with scientists at home and abroad.
Despite his great dedication to experimentation work, Abel's contribution is certainly not restricted to his research work. He was also the founder of a number of influential scientific journals. As more and more research was conducted in the field of biochemistry, Abel realized the importance of having a platform that allows scientists all around the world to publish their work and report on their findings. He therefore asked his friend Dr. C. A. Herter, Professor of Pharmacology at Columbia University, for help on founding a scientific journal on biochemistry. Together as joint editors, Abel and Herter established the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The first issue of the journal appeared in 1905. [6] Motivated by the very same goal of trying to create an outlet for a wide dissemination of new scientific findings, he later found the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 1908. [6]
- ^ "The John Jacob Abel Collection".
- ^ "The John Jacob Abel Collection".
- ^ "Johns Hopkins School of Medicine timeline".
- ^ "The John Jacob Abel Collection".
- ^ Parascandola, John (1992). The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 212. ISBN 0-8018-4416-9.
- ^ a b c d Macnider, WM. National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir of John Jacob Abel. The National Academies Press. pp. 11, 16, 17.
- ^ ""Abel, John Jacob." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography". Encyclopedia.com.
- ^ a b c d Jane H. Murnaghan, Paul Talalay. John Jacob Abel and the Crystallization of Insulin, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Volume 10, Number 3, pp. 340, 343, 346. Johns Hopkins University Press.