Ja-born medical researcher Dr E. Dale Abel receives lifetime science honour in US
Published:Monday | August 21, 2023 | 12:09 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Los Angeles-based, Jamaica-born Dr E. Dale Abel has been awarded the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award, the Endocrine Society’s highest honour.
The annual award recognises lifetime achievements and exceptional contributions to the field of endocrinology - the branch of physiology and medicine concerned with endocrine glands and hormones that are responsible for transmitting messages to organs throughout the body.
Abel, Jamaica’s 1986 Rhodes Scholar, who specialised in medicine at the University of the West Indies, is a past president of the Endocrine Society and the current chair and executive medical director of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and UCLA Health in Los Angeles, California.
Abel, who completed his doctoral research in physiology at the University of Oxford and started a clinical research fellowship in diabetes at Harvard Medical School in 1992, has a lengthy record as a researcher and clinician, as well as a mentor to young scientists.
Heart failure risk in diabetes
His pioneering work on glucose transport and mitochondrial metabolism in the heart guided his research interest in molecular mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular complications of diabetes. His laboratory has provided important insights into the contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction and aberrant insulin signalling heart failure risk in diabetes. His research has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than 20 years, and his scientific contributions have been recognised with his election to the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
In a release published by UCLA, Abel stated: “I am humbled to be the recipient of the highest award from the Endocrine Society, the world’s largest professional association of endocrinologists. The Endocrine Society has been my professional home for nearly 30 years. During this time, I have benefitted immensely through the Society from mentorship to numerous opportunities for professional development within the field. As such, it has been easy to give back and provide mentorship to emerging leaders in the field. My accomplishments as an endocrine investigator reflect the efforts of many trainees with whom I have been privileged to work over the past three decades and generosity of mentors and collaborators. I hope that our work will, ultimately, impact the lives of many patients with diabetes.”
Leadership roles
Abel has held several leadership positions at the Endocrine Society, including past president. He is currently a deputy editor for the peer-reviewed journal Endocrine Reviews. Before joining the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, he served as the chair and executive officer of the Department of Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Since 2012, he has been a principal investigator for the Endocrine Society’s Future Leaders Advancing Research in Endocrinology (FLARE) programme, which has helped individuals from underrepresented groups establish successful careers in endocrinology and diabetes research.
In addition, Abel has been recognised for a longstanding commitment to mentoring the next generation of endocrine researchers and biomedical scientists. He has served as the programme chair for the annual Network of Minority Investigators workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders to increase the success of minority biomedical researchers.
Since 2012, he has been a principal investigator for the Endocrine Society’s FLARE programme, which has successfully increased the pipeline of underrepresented groups into productive careers in endocrinology and diabetes research.
He completed his doctoral research in physiology at the University of Oxford.