Frances Ashcroft facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dame Frances Ashcroft
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|---|---|
| Born |
Frances Mary Ashcroft
15 February 1952 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Talbot Heath School |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
| Awards | UNESCO award (2012) Croonian Lecture (2013) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Calcium electrogenesis in insect muscle (1978) |
Dame Frances Mary Ashcroft is a famous British scientist. She was born in 1952. She studies how tiny "channels" in our bodies work. These channels are like gates that let tiny charged particles, called ions, move in and out of cells.
Dame Frances is a professor at the University of Oxford. She is known for her important work on insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps our bodies use sugar for energy. Her research has helped many people, especially children, who have a type of diabetes. Thanks to her work, some children with diabetes can now take pills instead of daily insulin shots.
Contents
Becoming a Scientist
Frances Ashcroft went to Talbot Heath School. Then she studied at the University of Cambridge. She earned a degree in Natural Sciences. In 1978, she completed her PhD in zoology. This means she became an expert in animal life.
Her Amazing Research
After her studies, Dame Frances did more research. She worked at the University of Leicester and in California, USA. She helps lead a special program called Oxion. This program teaches about ion channels and how they affect our health.
Understanding Diabetes
Dame Frances's main research looks at special channels called KATP channels. These channels are very important for releasing insulin. She wants to understand how our bodies release insulin when we eat sugar. She also studies what goes wrong in type II diabetes. Her work helps doctors find better ways to treat this condition.
Books by Dame Frances
Dame Frances Ashcroft has written several books. These books help explain science to everyone.
- Ion Channels and Disease: Channelopathies is about diseases caused by problems with ion channels.
- Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival explores how living things survive in tough places.
- The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body explains how electricity works in our bodies.
Her research has made a huge difference for people with neonatal diabetes. This is a very rare type of diabetes that babies are born with. Because of her work, many children with this condition can now take medicine by mouth. This is much easier than getting insulin injections every day.
Awards and Recognition
Dame Frances has received many awards for her scientific work.
- In 1999, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
- She won the Walter B. Cannon Award in 2007. This is a top award from the American Physiological Society.
- In 2012, she was one of five winners of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. This award celebrates women who are making a difference in science.
- She has also received special degrees from the Open University (2003) and the University of Leicester (2007).
- In 2013, she was given the Croonian Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society.
- In 2015, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). This honor was for her contributions to medical science and for helping people understand science better.
A famous author, A. S. Byatt, even dedicated part of her novel A Whistling Woman to Dame Frances.
Life Outside Science
Dame Frances Ashcroft even appeared on the TV show MasterChef in 2011. She was a diner along with other scientists from the Royal Society.
See also
In Spanish: Frances Ashcroft para niños
