Frances Ashcroft
{{short description|British geneticist and physiologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix = Professor
| name = Dame Frances Ashcroft
| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|FRS|FMedSci|size=100%}}
| image =
| birth_name = Frances Mary Ashcroft
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1952|2|15}}{{Who's Who | title=Ashcroft, Prof. Frances Mary | id = U5819 | year = 2014|author=|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U5819 | edition = online Oxford University Press}}
| nationality = British
| field = Physiology{{cite web|url=https://static.physoc.org/app/uploads/2019/06/19100058/Women-in-Physiology-.pdf|title=Women in Physiology|website=Static.physoc.org|access-date=21 June 2019}}
| education = Talbot Heath School
| alma_mater = University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
| workplaces = {{Plainlist|
- University of Oxford
- Trinity College, Oxford
- University of Leicester
- University of California, Los Angeles}}
| awards = UNESCO award (2012)
Croonian Lecture (2013)
| thesis_title = Calcium electrogenesis in insect muscle
| thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.448200
| thesis_year = 1978
| website = {{URL|http://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/group-leaders/frances-ashcroft}}
| module = {{Listen |embed= yes |filename= Frances_Ashcroft_BBC_Radio4_The_Life_Scientific_15_May_2012_b01hjqhr.flac |title= Frances Ashcroft's voice |type= speech |description= from the BBC programme The Life Scientific, 15 May 2012.{{Cite episode |title= Frances Ashcroft |series= The Life Scientific |series-link= The Life Scientific |url= http://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hjqhr |station= BBC Radio 4 |date= 2012-05-15 |access-date= 2014-01-18 }} }}
}}
Dame Frances Mary Ashcroft (born 1952) is a British ion channel physiologist.{{Scopus id}} She is Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor at the University Laboratory of Physiology at the University of Oxford. She is a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and is a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function. Her research group has an international reputation for work on insulin secretion, type II diabetes and neonatal diabetes.{{Cite journal | last1 = Ashcroft | first1 = F. M. | last2 = Harrison | first2 = D. E. | last3 = Ashcroft | first3 = S. J. H. | doi = 10.1038/312446a0 | title = Glucose induces closure of single potassium channels in isolated rat pancreatic β-cells | journal = Nature | volume = 312 | issue = 5993 | pages = 446–448 | year = 1984 | pmid = 6095103| bibcode = 1984Natur.312..446A | s2cid = 4340710 }}{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0079-6107(89)90013-8| title = Electrophysiology of the pancreatic β-cell| journal = Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology| volume = 54| issue = 2| pages = 87–143| year = 1989| last1 = Ashcroft | first1 = F. M. | author-link1 = Frances Ashcroft| last2 = Rorsman | first2 = P. | author-link2 = Patrik Rorsman| pmid = 2484976| doi-access = free}} Her work with Andrew Hattersley has helped enable children born with diabetes to switch from insulin injections to tablet therapy.{{Cite journal | last1 = Ashcroft | first1 = F. M. | doi = 10.1146/annurev.ne.11.030188.000525 | title = Adenosine 5'-Triphosphate-Sensitive Potassium Channels | journal = Annual Review of Neuroscience | volume = 11 | pages = 97–118 | year = 1988 | pmid = 2452599}}{{cite web|url=http://www.reagent.co.uk/blog/careers-in-science/ |title=Frances Ashcroft talks to ReAgent about career advice for scientists|website=reagent.co.uk|date=11 June 2014}}{{Cite book|publisher=The Physiological Society|year=2015|title=Women physiologists : centenary celebrations and beyond|isbn=9780993341007|oclc=922032986|editor1-first=Susan|editor1-last=Wray|editor2-first=Elizabeth|editor-link1=Tilli Tansey|editor-link2=Susan Wray|editor2-last=Tansey|location=London|url=https://static.physoc.org/app/uploads/2019/06/19095724/Women_physiologists_PRINT_FINAL.pdf}}{{Cite journal|last1=Ashcroft|first1=Frances M.|author-link1=Frances Ashcroft|last2=Harrison|first2=Donna E.|author-link2=Donna E. Davies|last3=Ashcroft|first3=Stephen J. H.|date=1984|title=Glucose induces closure of single potassium channels in isolated rat pancreatic β-cells|journal=Nature|volume=312|issue=5993|pages=446–448|doi=10.1038/312446a0|issn=0028-0836|pmid= 6095103|bibcode=1984Natur.312..446A|s2cid=4340710}} {{closed access}}
Education
Ashcroft was educated at Talbot Heath School and the University of Cambridge where she was awarded a degree in Natural Sciences followed by a PhD in zoology in 1978.{{cite thesis |website=copac.jisc.ac.uk|degree=PhD |first=Frances Mary|last=Ashcroft |title=Calcium electrogenesis in insect muscle |publisher=University of Cambridge |date=1978 |url=https://copac.jisc.ac.uk/id/23482649?style=html|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.448200}}|oclc=500372918}}{{cite web|url=http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/2000-2009/2007/07/nparticle.2007-07-16.3558954245|title=Oration for Professor Frances Ashcroft by Professor Gordon Campbell. On the occasion of being awarded Doctor of Science summer 2007|website=le.ac.uk|publisher=University of Leicester|access-date=25 June 2012}}
Career and research
Ashcroft then did postdoctoral research at the University of Leicester and the University of California at Los Angeles.{{Cite web| title = Frances Ashcroft, Professorial Fellow in Physiology| work = Trinity College, University of Oxford| access-date = 2015-04-21| date = 2014| url = http://www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/frances-ashcroft/| archive-date = 1 April 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190401191010/https://www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/frances-ashcroft/| url-status = dead}} Ashcroft is a director of Oxion: Ion Channels and Disease Initiative, a research and training programme on integrative ion channel research, funded by the Wellcome Trust.{{Cite web| title = Welcome to Oxion| work = Oxion: Ion Channels and Disease Initiative, Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and MRC Hartwell| access-date = 2015-04-21| url = http://oxion.dpag.ox.ac.uk/}}
Ashcroft's research focuses on ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP)channels and their role in insulin secretion.
Ashcroft is working towards explaining how a rise in the blood glucose concentration stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreatic beta-cells, what goes wrong with this process in type 2 diabetes, and how drugs used to treat this condition exert their beneficial effects.{{Cite web| title = Frances Ashcroft — GLAXOSMITHKLINE Royal Society Professor| work = Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford| access-date = 2015-04-21| date = 2015| url = http://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/group-leaders/frances-ashcroft}} Ashcroft has authored a few science and popular science books based on ion channel physiology:
- Ion Channels and Disease: Channelopathies on channelopathic diseases1999, Academic Press, {{ISBN|0120653109}}
- Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival2000, HarperCollins, {{ISBN|0141046538}}
- The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body2012, W. W. Norton and Company, {{ISBN|0006551254}}
Her work has helped people with neonatal diabetes, a very rare disease, switch from insulin injections to oral drug therapy.
=Honours and awards=
Ashcroft was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999.{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/frances-ashcroft-11008/|title=Dame Frances Ashcroft DBE FMedSci FRS|publisher=The Royal Society|access-date=6 July 2012|location=London|website=royalsociety.org|author=Anon|year=1999}} One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: {{blockquote|“All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111170346/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/terms-conditions-policies/|title=Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies|date=2016-11-11}}}} In 2007 Ashcroft was awarded the Walter B. Cannon Award, the highest honour bestowed by the American Physiological Society.{{cite press release
|title=Oxford physiology professor earns APS' Walter B. Cannon Award |date=27 April 2007 |url=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/aps-opp042607.php |publisher=American Physiological Society |via=EurekAlert! |access-date=22 March 2015 }} She was one of five 2012 winners of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.{{cite web|url= http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/111108_3.html |title= Ashcroft receives L'oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111108225044/https://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/111108_3.html |date= 8 November 2011 |archive-date= 8 November 2011 |website= ox.ac.uk |access-date= 24 October 2017}}
Ashcroft was awarded an honorary degrees of Doctor of the University from the Open University in 2003 and Doctor of Science from the University of Leicester on 13 July 2007.
Ashcroft was awarded the Croonian Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society in 2013.{{cite web |url-status= dead |url= http://royalsociety.org/awards/croonian-lecture/ |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120714111601/http://royalsociety.org/awards/croonian-lecture/ |archive-date= 14 July 2012 |title= Croonian Lecture—List of lecturers: 21st century |publisher= Royal Society |access-date= 24 October 2017 }}
In the 2015 Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) 'for services to Medical Science and the Public Understanding of Science'.{{London Gazette |issue=61256 |date=13 June 2015 |page=B8 |supp=y }} She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 1999.{{cite web|url=https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/professor-frances-ashcroft|title=Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft - The Academy of Medical Sciences|website=Acmedsci.ac.uk|access-date=21 June 2019|archive-date=21 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621064856/https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/professor-frances-ashcroft|url-status=dead}}
A. S. Byatt's novel A Whistling Woman is half dedicated to Ashcroft.{{cite journal|url=http://www.cercles.com/interviews/byatt.html|title=An interview with A. S. Byatt|journal=Cerles Review|first1=Jenny|last1=Newman|first2=James|last2=Friel|year=2003|accessdate=11 September 2010|quote=I remember sitting at high table with my friend, Professor Frances Ashcroft, to whom A Whistling Woman is half dedicated.}}
Personal life
Ashcroft appeared (as a diner) on MasterChef during the 2011 series,{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} along with several other Fellows of the Royal Society.
References
{{Reflist}}
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Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Academics of the University of Leicester
Category:British physiologists
Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Female fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)
Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford
Category:L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates