We are pleased to announce the appointment of E. Dale Abel, MBBS, DPhil ( MD, PhD) , as Director of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) Diabetes Research Center and the John B. Stokes III, Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research, effective June 30, 2013.
In addition to the above titles, Dr. Abel will be professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and have a joint appointment as professor in Biochemistry. He will also serve as head of the interdisciplinary Diabetes Clinic located at UI Hospitals and Clinics—Iowa River Landing. As director of FOE Diabetes Research Center, his responsibilities will focus on recruiting and mentoring world class faculty, and developing clinical, research and academic programs of excellence.
Dr. Abel is currently Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Human Genetics and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Utah, where he started in 2000 as an assistant professor. Prior to that he was a clinical and research fellow and instructor at Harvard Medical School, and before that an instructor of Clinical Medicine at Northwestern University Medical School. He received his medical degree from the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He was a Rhodes Scholar and Clinical Research Fellow to Professor John G Ledingham at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom, where he also earned a DPhil (PhD) in Physiology. He was then an intern and resident in medicine at McGraw Medical Center, Northwestern University Medical School and served as chief resident of Internal Medicine at the VA Lakeside Medical Center there. In the course of his career Dr. Abel has received numerous national honors and awards, has been a lecturer and visiting professor in the U.S. and Internationally, and is primary or co-author or editor on more than 140 publications.
He is actively funded by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, and his program has been supported by the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the American Heart Association. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for cardiac dysfunction in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and type 1 diabetes, and in studies of the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, obesity, and its complications. His laboratory has been a member, for the 10 year duration of the Animal Models of Diabetes Complications Consortium, and as such played an important role in defining and characterizing appropriate mouse models of diabetes cardiovascular complications.
We look forward to working in partnership with Dr. Abel and the Fraternal Order of Eagles to develop a world class, comprehensive diabetes research center. Please join us in welcoming him to this new role.
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