Upon completing her residency and fellowship, Aberle joined the faculty at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. While working there, she was also named to lead the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) in 2011. Her research team found that administering CT scans for high-risk patients saved their lives, pushing for more support for CT scans for bladder cancer survivors.[2] She followed this up by publishing the first annual screening examinations NLST in 2013, showing that low-dose CT scans could detect early-stage lung cancer at a faster rate than chest X-ray.[3] In recognition of her work with the NLST, she received the 2014 Clinical Research Achievement Award from Clinical Research Forum.[4]
In 2019, Aberle was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine for "leading the American College of Radiology Imaging Network in the National Cancer Institute–sponsored National Lung Screening Trial, in which low-dose CT screening was shown to reduce mortality from lung cancer by 20% compared with chest radiographic screening."[7] She also received the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s Joseph W. Cullen Prevention/Early Detection Award for her "lifetime contributions to the prevention of lung cancer or other thoracic malignancies."[8]