John Abelson

John Abelson (c.1939- ) is an American molecular biologist with expertise in biophysics, biochemistry, and genetics. He was a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

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Abelson graduated in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in physics from Washington State University. He obtained his Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University in 1965. He then did postdoctoral studies in biochemistry at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, England before occupying his first faculty post at the University of California, San Diego in 1968.

In 1982 Abelson joined the faculty at Caltech. He chaired the Division of Biology there and became the George Beadle Professor of Biology in 1991. He retired in 2002 and lives in San Francisco, where he currently works with his wife, Christine Guthrie, a noted RNA biochemist, geneticist and faculty at UCSF.

Abelson was a key figure in the elucidation of RNA splicing. He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1985.

Note

His uncle, Philip Abelson, a physicist, was the longtime editor of Science and his aunt, Neva Martin Abelson co-developed the blood test for Rh factor.