[1] Abel is a clinical academic, professor of Psychological Medicine and Director of the Centre for Women's Mental Health and GM.Digital (formerly CAMHS.Digital) Research Unit at the University of Manchester.
She previously served on the Academic Faculty Executive at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Appraisal Committee C between 2008 and 2018.
Her research focuses on maternal health, early environmental influences on brain development, and the cognitive outcomes of offspring.
Her work includes epidemiological studies using population data from the UK, Scandinavia, and Western Australia to assess maternal exposures and offspring outcomes.
[citation needed] She co-edited academic textbooks, including The Female Mind (RCPSYH, 2017) and Comprehensive Women's Mental Health (Cambridge, 2016).