Frances Ashcroft

Dame Frances Ashcroft
Born	Frances Mary Ashcroft Template:Birth year and age
Occupation(s)	Ion channel physiologist, professor
Known for	Research on insulin secretion, type II diabetes, neonatal diabetes; Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor at University of Oxford
Notable work	Ion Channels and Disease: Channelopathies (1999), Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival (2000), The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body (2012)

Dame Frances Mary Ashcroft (born 1952) is a distinguished British ion channel physiologist and holds the position of Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor at the University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford. She is a fellow at Trinity College, Oxford and leads the Oxford Centre for Gene Function as its director. Her globally acclaimed research primarily addresses insulin secretion, type II diabetes, and neonatal diabetes. In partnership with Andrew Hattersley, her investigations have facilitated the transition for children with neonatal diabetes from insulin injections to oral medication.

Education

Ashcroft completed her schooling at Talbot Heath School before attending the University of Cambridge, where she obtained a degree in Natural Sciences followed by a PhD in zoology awarded in 1978.

Career and research

Following her doctoral studies, Ashcroft undertook postdoctoral work at both the University of Leicester and the University of California at Los Angeles. She serves as a director for Oxion: Ion Channels and Disease Initiative, a research and training program funded by the Wellcome Trust that focuses on integrative studies of ion channels.

Her scientific focus is on ATP-sensitive potassium (K_ATP) channels and their critical function in insulin secretion. Ashcroft explores how elevated blood glucose levels stimulate insulin release from pancreatic beta-cells, investigates dysfunctions linked to type 2 diabetes, and examines therapeutic mechanisms of associated drugs.

She has authored multiple scientific and popular science publications concerning ion channel physiology:

• Ion Channels and Disease: Channelopathies (1999, Academic Press)
• Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival (2000, HarperCollins)
• The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body (2012, W. W. Norton and Company)

Her pioneering work has enabled patients with neonatal diabetes to switch from injectable insulin therapies to oral drug regimens.

Honours and awards

In 1999, Ashcroft was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. She was honored with the prestigious Walter B. Cannon Award by the American Physiological Society in 2007. Among five recipients, she received the 2012 L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.

Ashcroft has been conferred honorary degrees including a Doctor of the University from the Open University in 2003 and a Doctor of Science from the University of Leicester in 2007.

In recognition of her contributions, she was awarded the Croonian Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society in 2013. The 2015 Birthday Honours appointed her as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to Medical Science and Public Engagement with Science. Additionally, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 1999.

The novel A Whistling Woman by A. S. Byatt includes a partial dedication to Ashcroft.

Personal life

In the 2011 season of MasterChef, Ashcroft participated as a diner, appearing alongside multiple other Royal Society Fellows.