Prof. Frances M. Ashcroft

Academic Career:

• 1974
  B.A, Cambridge University (top 1st class Honours, Zoology)
  
  

• 1978
  M.A, Cambridge University
  
  

• 1979
  Ph.D, Cambridge University
  
  

• 1996
  Sc.D, Cambridge University
  
  

Fellowships:

• 1972
  Undergraduate exhibition, Girton College, Cambridge
  
  

• 1973
  Undergraduate scholarship, Girton College, Cambridge
  
  

• 1974 – 1977
  Science Research Council predoctoral scholarship, Graduate scholarship, Girton College, Cambridge
  
  

• 1978
  Grass Foundation Fellowship, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA
  
  

• 1978 – 1983
  Medical Research Council postdoctoral training fellowship
  
  

• 1981 – 1982
  Muscular Dystrophy Association (USA), postdoctoral fellowship
  
  

• 1983 – 1985
  E.P.A. Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellow, Linacre College
  
  

• 1985 – 1990
  Royal Society 1983 University Research Fellow
  
  

• 1986 – 1987
  Lecturer in Physiology, Christ Church College, Oxford
  
  

• 1988 – 1989
  Lecturer in Physiology, Trinity College, Oxford
  
  

• 1990 – 1991
  Tutorial Fellow in Medicine, St Hilda's College, Oxford
  
  

• 1992 – 1996
  Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford
  
  

• 1996 – 2001
  Professor of Physiology, University of Oxford (titular)
  
  

• 1997 – 1998
  Special lectureship, University of Oxford
  
  

• 1997 – 1999
  Medical Tutor, Trinity College, Oxford
  
  

• 1999 – 2001
  Research Fellow in Physiology, Trinity College, Oxford
  
  

• 2001 – 2011
  Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor
  
  

• Since 2001
  Professorial Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford
  
  

• 2006 – 2013
  Honorary Visiting Professor, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
  
  

• Since 2008
  International Visiting Professor, Kobe University, Japan
  
  

Previous academic posts:

• 1971
  - 1974 Undergraduate, Girton College, Cambridge
  
  

• 1974 – 1978
  SERC research student, Zoology, Cambridge
  
  

• 1978 – 1982
  MRC postdoctoral training fellow, Physiology, Leicester
  
  

• 1981 – 1982
  MDA postdoctoral fellow, Physiology, UCLA, USA
  
  

• 1982 – 1985
  Departmental Demonstrator, Physiology, Oxford
  
  

• 1985 – 1990
  Royal Society University Research Fellow, Physiology, Oxford
  
  

• 1990 – 1996
  Lecturer in Physiology, Physiology, Oxford
  
  

• 1996 – 2001
  Professor of Physiology, Physiology, Oxford
  
  

Present positions:

•  
  Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor, Oxford
  
  

•  
  Professorial Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford
  
  

•  
  Director, OXION (Wellcome Trust Integrative Physiology Initiative in Ion Channels and Diseases of Electrically Excitable Cells)
  
  

•  
  Honorary Visiting Professor, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter
  
  

•  
  International Visiting Professor, Kobe University, Japan
  
  

•  
  Honorary Fellow, Girton College Cambridge
  
  

• My research focuses on glucose homeostasis. Specifically, I am interested in how a rise in the blood sugar concentration stimulates release of the hormone insulin from the beta-cells of the pancreas, what goes wrong with this process in type 2 diabetes and neonatal diabetes, and how drugs used to treat these conditions exert their beneficial effects.

• Much of my work concerns the ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel, which we have shown plays a key role in insulin secretion in both health and disease. I am interested in how the function of the KATP channel relates to its structure, how cell metabolism regulates channel activity, and how mutations/polymorphisms in KATP channel genes cause human disease. We study the channel at many levels ranging from its atomic structure, biophysical properties to its many roles in different tissues, the whole organism and human disease.

• As a direct result of my work on the KATP channel, several hundred patients with neonatal diabetes have been able to switch from insulin injections to oral sulphonylurea drugs, with substantial improvement in their clinical condition and quality of life. The neurological symptoms that some patients experience may also be ameliorated. Together with Andrew Hattersley, I also raised the money for, and organised, the first ever meeting for patients with neonatal diabetes and their families (2009).

• Finally, we also study the function of the FTO gene that predisposes to common obesity.

• I have trained 18 PhD students and 42 post-doctoral fellows. Many are now established academics, in various countries, including Denis Burdakov, Fiona Gribble, Masafumi Kakei, Birgit Liss, Frank Reimann, Jochen Roeper, Paolo Tammaro, Makoto Takano, Stephan Trapp and Stephen Tucker. Others have entered clinical medicine. Some of my past students have won major international pzies, e.g. Gribble, the Minkowski Prize (European Association for the Study of Diabetes); Liss, the Alfried Krupp-Förderpreis for Young Professors, (a one-million-Euro prize from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation).

• My textbook, Ion Channels and Disease, was critically acclaimed and even after 10 years remains a standard text for many undergraduate and graduate courses that deal with ion channels. It was instrumental in helping define the new field of 'channelopathies'.

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