Frances Ashcroft

Last updated

Professor
Dame Frances Ashcroft
DBE FRS FMedSci
Born
Frances Mary Ashcroft

(1952-02-15) 15 February 1952 (age 72) [1]
NationalityBritish
Education Talbot Heath School
Alma mater University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
Awards UNESCO award (2012)
Croonian Lecture (2013)
Scientific career
Fields Physiology [2]
Institutions
Thesis Calcium electrogenesis in insect muscle  (1978)
Frances Ashcroft's voice
from the BBC programme The Life Scientific , 15 May 2012. [3]
Website www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/group-leaders/frances-ashcroft

Dame Frances Mary Ashcroft (born 1952) is a British ion channel physiologist. [4] [2] [5] 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. [6] [7] Her work with Andrew Hattersley has helped enable children born with diabetes to switch from insulin injections to tablet therapy. [8] [9] [4] [10]

Contents

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. [11] [12]

Career and research

Ashcroft then did postdoctoral research at the University of Leicester and the University of California at Los Angeles. [13] 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. [14]

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. [15] Ashcroft has authored a few science and popular science books based on ion channel physiology:

Her work has helped people with neonatal diabetes, a very rare disease, switch from insulin injections to oral drug therapy. [2]

Honours and awards

Ashcroft was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999. [19] In 2007 Ashcroft was awarded the Walter B. Cannon Award, the highest honour bestowed by the American Physiological Society. [20] She was one of five 2012 winners of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. [21]

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. [12]

Ashcroft was awarded the Croonian Lecture by the Royal Society in 2013. [22]

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'. [23] She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 1999. [24]

A. S. Byatt's novel A Whistling Woman is half dedicated to Ashcroft. [25]

Personal life

Ashcroft appeared (as a diner) on MasterChef during the 2011 series,[ citation needed ] along with several other Fellows of the Royal Society.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insulin</span> Peptide hormone

Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (INS) gene. It is the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and protein by promoting the absorption of glucose from the blood into cells of the liver, fat, and skeletal muscles. In these tissues the absorbed glucose is converted into either glycogen, via glycogenesis, or fats (triglycerides), via lipogenesis; in the liver, glucose is converted into both. Glucose production and secretion by the liver are strongly inhibited by high concentrations of insulin in the blood. Circulating insulin also affects the synthesis of proteins in a wide variety of tissues. It is thus an anabolic hormone, promoting the conversion of small molecules in the blood into large molecules in the cells. Low insulin in the blood has the opposite effect, promoting widespread catabolism, especially of reserve body fat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beta cell</span> Type of cell found in pancreatic islets

Beta cells (β-cells) are specialized endocrine cells located within the pancreatic islets of Langerhans responsible for the production and release of insulin and amylin. Constituting ~50–70% of cells in human islets, beta cells play a vital role in maintaining blood glucose levels. Problems with beta cells can lead to disorders such as diabetes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolae Paulescu</span> Romanian academic

Nicolae Constantin Paulescu was a Romanian physiologist, professor of medicine, and politician, most famous for his work on diabetes, including patenting pancreine. The "pancreine" was an extract of bovine pancreas in salted water, after which some impurites were removed with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. Paulescu was also, with A. C. Cuza, co-founder of the National Christian Union and later, of the National-Christian Defense League in Romania. He was also a leading member of the Iron Guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpha cell</span> Glucagon secreting cell

Alpha cells (α-cells) are endocrine cells that are found in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Alpha cells secrete the peptide hormone glucagon in order to increase glucose levels in the blood stream.

An ATP-sensitive potassium channel is a type of potassium channel that is gated by intracellular nucleotides, ATP and ADP. ATP-sensitive potassium channels are composed of Kir6.x-type subunits and sulfonylurea receptor (SUR) subunits, along with additional components. KATP channels are widely distributed in plasma membranes; however some may also be found on subcellular membranes. These latter classes of KATP channels can be classified as being either sarcolemmal ("sarcKATP"), mitochondrial ("mitoKATP"), or nuclear ("nucKATP").

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Davies</span> British geneticist and anatomist; educator

Dame Kay Elizabeth Davies is a British geneticist. She is Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. She is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) functional genetics unit, a governor of the Wellcome Trust, a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function, and a patron and Senior Member of Oxford University Scientific Society. Her research group has an international reputation for work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In the 1980s, she developed a test which allowed for the screening of foetuses whose mothers have a high risk of carrying DMD.

In molecular biology, the sulfonylurea receptors (SUR) are membrane proteins which are the molecular targets of the sulfonylurea class of antidiabetic drugs whose mechanism of action is to promote insulin release from pancreatic beta cells. More specifically, SUR proteins are subunits of the inward-rectifier potassium ion channels Kir6.x. The association of four Kir6.x and four SUR subunits form an ion conducting channel commonly referred to as the KATP channel.

K<sub>ir</sub>6.2 Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Kir6.2 is a major subunit of the ATP-sensitive K+ channel, a lipid-gated inward-rectifier potassium ion channel. The gene encoding the channel is called KCNJ11 and mutations in this gene are associated with congenital hyperinsulinism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Partridge</span> British biogerontologist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Randle</span> British medical researcher

Sir Philip John Randle was a British biochemist and medical researcher after whom the Randle cycle is named.

The insulin transduction pathway is a biochemical pathway by which insulin increases the uptake of glucose into fat and muscle cells and reduces the synthesis of glucose in the liver and hence is involved in maintaining glucose homeostasis. This pathway is also influenced by fed versus fasting states, stress levels, and a variety of other hormones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen O'Rahilly</span> Irish-British physician and scientist (born 1958)

Sir Stephen Patrick O'Rahilly is an Irish-British physician and scientist known for his research into the molecular pathogenesis of human obesity, insulin resistance and related metabolic and endocrine disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guangxitoxin</span>

Guangxitoxin, also known as GxTX, is a peptide toxin found in the venom of the tarantula Plesiophrictus guangxiensis. It primarily inhibits outward voltage-gated Kv2.1 potassium channel currents, which are prominently expressed in pancreatic β-cells, thus increasing insulin secretion.

Hanatoxin is a toxin found in the venom of the Grammostola spatulata tarantula. The toxin is mostly known for inhibiting the activation of voltage-gated potassium channels, most specifically Kv4.2 and Kv2.1, by raising its activation threshold.

Mladen Vranic, MD, DSc, O.C., O.Ont, FRSC, FRCP(C), FCAHS, Canadian Medical Hall of Fame[CMHF] April 3, 1930 – June 18, 2019, was a Croatian-born diabetes researcher, best known for his work in tracer methodology, exercise and stress in diabetes, the metabolic effects of hormonal interactions, glucagon physiology, extrapancreatic glucagon, the role of the direct and indirect metabolic effects of insulin and the prevention of hypoglycemia. Vranic was recognized by a number of national and international awards for his research contributions, mentoring and administration including the Orders of Canada (Officer) and Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrik Rorsman</span>

Patrik Rorsman is a Swedish scientist who is Professor of Diabetic Medicine at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM), in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Nichols</span> English academic

Colin G. Nichols FRS is the Carl Cori Endowed Professor, and Director of the Center for Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Charles Nicholas "Nick" Hales was an English physician, biochemist, diabetologist, pathologist, and professor of clinical biochemistry

Donna Elizabeth Davies is a British biochemist and professor of respiratory cell and molecular biology at the University of Southampton. In 2003, Davies was the co-founder of Synairgen, an interferon-beta drug designed to treat patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Arthur Henry Weston is emeritus professor at the University of Manchester, where he was previously Leech Professor of Pharmacology from 1989-2011.

References

  1. ↑ "Ashcroft, Prof. Frances Mary" . Who's Who (online Oxford University Press  ed.). A & C Black. 2014. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U5819.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 3 "Women in Physiology" (PDF). Static.physoc.org. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  3. ↑ "Frances Ashcroft". The Life Scientific. 15 May 2012. BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  4. 1 2 Wray, Susan; Tansey, Elizabeth, eds. (2015). Women physiologists : centenary celebrations and beyond (PDF). London: The Physiological Society. ISBN   9780993341007. OCLC   922032986.
  5. ↑ Frances Ashcroft publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  6. ↑ Ashcroft, F. M.; Harrison, D. E.; Ashcroft, S. J. H. (1984). "Glucose induces closure of single potassium channels in isolated rat pancreatic β-cells". Nature. 312 (5993): 446–448. Bibcode:1984Natur.312..446A. doi:10.1038/312446a0. PMID   6095103. S2CID   4340710.
  7. ↑ Ashcroft, F. M.; Rorsman, P. (1989). "Electrophysiology of the pancreatic β-cell". Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 54 (2): 87–143. doi: 10.1016/0079-6107(89)90013-8 . PMID   2484976.
  8. ↑ Ashcroft, F. M. (1988). "Adenosine 5'-Triphosphate-Sensitive Potassium Channels". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 11: 97–118. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.11.030188.000525. PMID   2452599.
  9. ↑ "Frances Ashcroft talks to ReAgent about career advice for scientists". reagent.co.uk. 11 June 2014.
  10. ↑ Ashcroft, Frances M.; Harrison, Donna E.; Ashcroft, Stephen J. H. (1984). "Glucose induces closure of single potassium channels in isolated rat pancreatic β-cells". Nature. 312 (5993): 446–448. Bibcode:1984Natur.312..446A. doi:10.1038/312446a0. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   6095103. S2CID   4340710. Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  11. ↑ Ashcroft, Frances Mary (1978). Calcium electrogenesis in insect muscle. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC   500372918. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.448200.
  12. 1 2 "Oration for Professor Frances Ashcroft by Professor Gordon Campbell. On the occasion of being awarded Doctor of Science summer 2007". le.ac.uk. University of Leicester. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  13. ↑ "Frances Ashcroft, Professorial Fellow in Physiology". Trinity College, University of Oxford. 2014. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  14. ↑ "Welcome to Oxion". Oxion: Ion Channels and Disease Initiative, Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and MRC Hartwell. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "Frances Ashcroft — GLAXOSMITHKLINE Royal Society Professor". Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford. 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  16. ↑ 1999, Academic Press, ISBN   0120653109
  17. ↑ 2000, HarperCollins, ISBN   0141046538
  18. ↑ 2012, W. W. Norton and Company, ISBN   0006551254
  19. ↑ Anon (1999). "Dame Frances Ashcroft DBE FMedSci FRS". royalsociety.org. London: The Royal Society. Retrieved 6 July 2012. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)
  20. ↑ "Oxford physiology professor earns APS' Walter B. Cannon Award" (Press release). American Physiological Society. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 22 March 2015– via EurekAlert!.
  21. ↑ "Ashcroft receives L'oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science". ox.ac.uk. 8 November 2011. Archived from the original on 8 November 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  22. ↑ "Croonian Lecture—List of lecturers: 21st century". Royal Society. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  23. ↑ "No. 61256". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2015. p. B8.
  24. ↑ "Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft - The Academy of Medical Sciences". Acmedsci.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  25. ↑ Newman, Jenny; Friel, James (2003). "An interview with A. S. Byatt". Cerles Review. Retrieved 11 September 2010. I remember sitting at high table with my friend, Professor Frances Ashcroft, to whom A Whistling Woman is half dedicated.

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