Evan Dale Abel, former Rhodes Scholar, and current chair of the UCLA Department of Medicine, stands among the few deserving of the Koch Award, the highest honor of the Endocrine Society.
Abel is an accomplished investigator in laboratory research focused on the complications of diabetes mellitus and their prevention. He has trained and inspired numerous fellows and students in the exacting analysis of mouse models and in the molecular investigation of metabolic derangements of the cardiovascular system in diabetes. These complications exact an enormous toll each year on patients living with diabetes around the world, due to their direct contributions to congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, vascular disease, disability, and death.
His keen mind, indomitable courage and vision, and generous style of leadership have enabled him to take on additional leadership responsibilities as the president of the Endocrine Society (2018 – 2021) and in mentoring underrepresented students, fellows, and junior faculty as principal investigator of the Endocrine Society’s National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored FLARE (Future Leaders Advancing Research in Endocrinology) Career Development Program. This unique program, fueled largely by Abel’s creative energy and wisdom, will reap dividends to our field for decades to come, as it has graduated well over 150 students.
Abel has been further honored by being elected to the top societies for academic leaders in research and medicine including the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2004), the American Academy of Pediatrics (2012), National Academy of Medicine (2015), and National Academy of Sciences (2022). Abel has achieved a wide and continuous breadth of extramural funding from the NIH from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (1995 – present), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1998 – present), and the American Heart Association (2003 – present) with additional support from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Diabetes Association over the past 20+ years. There is no more gifted and committed leader who is more deserving of the Koch Award of the Endocrine Society than Dr. Evan Dale Abel.
-Dolores Shoback, MD, UCSF/VA Medical Center, and Gary Hammer, MD, PhD, University of Michigan
Endocrine News caught up with Abel to discuss taking home the Fred Koch Lifetime Achievement Award – the Endocrine Society’s highest honor – as well as the path that led him here, his advice for the next generation of endocrinologists, and where he’s going next.
Endocrine News: First off, congratulations on winning the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Laureate Award. This is the Endocrine Society’s highest honor. What does this recognition mean for you, personally and professionally?
E. Dale Abel: The Endocrine Society is my professional home and has provided me with immeasurable opportunities for professional development over the past three decades. I have many dear friends and colleagues within the Endocrine Society. Moreover, I believe that the scientific advances that have grown out of our field have influenced many other fields by providing fundamental tools and insights.
My career was launched by the generosity of mentors who shared with me critical tools and reagents that enabled me to understand the relationship between metabolism and cardiac function. I appreciate the ways that my mentors taught me the importance of networking and the art of establishing productive collaborations.
The recognition by the Endocrine Society of my lifetime work in elucidating the mechanisms that lead to cardiovascular complications of diabetes and the many roles of metabolism and insulin signaling in the cardiovascular system, is an example of how endocrine research has informed other disciplines. As such, I am deeply humbled by this recognition, knowing that I could not have received this without pivotal contributions by my trainees and many collaborators over the years.
EN: Your lab has provided important insights into diabetes for three decades. Can you share a couple of your proudest moments in that time?
EDA: Scientifically, I am very proud of our work that contributed to the understanding of how the abnormal metabolic milieu in diabetes alters cardiac metabolism, impacts cardiac mitochondria and alters insulin signaling. These findings have been confirmed by many workers in the field and have been shown to be true not only in animal models, but also in humans. I have had the opportunity to mentor many trainees in my laboratory as students or post-doctoral researchers. Many of them now hold independent positions in endocrine and cardiovascular research around the world. I am proud to see them succeed and to learn about their successes and independent contributions to the field.
EN: You’re well known as an exemplary mentor and leader. Can you talk about some times you’ve been inspired by your own mentors or colleagues?
EDA: My career was launched by the generosity of mentors who shared with me critical tools and reagents that enabled me to understand the relationship between metabolism and cardiac function. I appreciate the ways that my mentors taught me the importance of networking and the art of establishing productive collaborations. Many of my mentors taught me the importance and value of effective scientific communication, which are critical skills with which to disseminate our discoveries and compete for funding. As a mentor, I am always inspired by the creativity that is unlocked when you give talented individuals the space to think and explore new horizons in science.
The Endocrine Society is my professional home and has provided me with immeasurable opportunities for professional development over the past three decades. I have many dear friends and colleagues within the Endocrine Society.
EN: On the other hand, what advice do you have for young endocrinologists who may one day win this award?
EDA: This is a marathon and not a sprint. Do not be deterred by inevitable disappointments along the way. Early in your career, focus on a discreet number of questions to pursue in depth. Do this rigorously and reproducibly and your work will get noticed. Be generous to your mentees, who will pay it forward in ways that will advance your own research. Seek advice from many mentors, both within and outside of your field. Be generous and willing to share. It will only accelerate discovery.
EN: Is there any new work for your lab coming up that you’d like to share?
EDA: We have interesting new work that is elucidating important roles of sex hormones such as estrogen in modulating mitochondrial function in platelets that may explain sex differences in thrombosis. We have new work linking autophagy to NAD metabolism, mitochondrial energetics and heart failure and an emerging project that is identifying fundamental mechanisms that could lead to fatty liver disease.
–Derek Bagley, Senior Editor, Endocrine News
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