Chris Abell

British biological chemist (1957–2020)

Christopher Abell (11 November 1957 – 26 October 2020) was a British biological chemist who was a professor of biological chemistry at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and Todd Hamied Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. On his 2016 election to the Royal Society, Abell's research was described as having "changed the face of drug discovery."

Abell was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, on the topic of polyketide biosynthesis for research supervised by James Staunton in 1982.

Abell held a research fellowship in the laboratory of David E. Cane at Brown University, Providence, USA, studying terpene biosynthesis (1982–83). He was a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1986; and was the college's Todd Hamied Fellow. In 2013 he was appointed the first director of postdoctoral affairs at the University of Cambridge, and in 2016 was appointed pro vice chancellor for research. Abell published over 200 papers. and biological nanotechnology. His former doctoral students include Shankar Balasubramanian. In 2010, he co founded Sphere Fluidics to develop microdroplet technology. In 2012 he co founded Aqdot, a company developing a new microencapsulation technology.

In 1981, he married Katherine Abell, who worked with him at the department of chemistry in Cambridge; they had a son. He died suddenly on 26 October 2020. and a Yamada Science Foundation Award. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2012 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2016.