NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series

Dr. Abel is internationally recognized for his research on the molecular mechanisms responsible for cardiac dysfunction in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and type 1 diabetes, and for studies of the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the development of insulin resistance, obesity, and its complications.

Dr. Abel earned his medical degree with distinction from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He was a Rhodes Scholar and clinical research fellow with Professor John G. Ledingham at the University of Oxford, England, where he also earned a Ph.D. in physiology. He completed an internship and residency in medicine at McGraw Medical Center, a part of Northwestern University Medical School, where he served as chief resident of internal medicine at the VA Lakeside Medical Center. He was a clinical and research fellow and instructor at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty at the University of Utah in 2000.

Dr. Abel has earned many awards including the Van Meter Prize of the American Thyroid Association in 2001 and the 2012 Gerald D. Aurbach Award, from The Endocrine Society for "outstanding" contributions to endocrine research.

He was elected Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and now serves as a member of the advisory council of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He was chair of the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation's Scientific Committee from 2012 to 2013, and is a fellow of the American Heart Association and the American College of Physicians. He was recently elected as president of the Endocrine Society.

Dr. Abel is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Clinical and Climatological Association, and the Association of American Physicians. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in October 2015.

For more information go to https://oir.nih.gov/wals/2017-2018/sugar-beating-heart-conundrum-heart-failure-diabetes