30 Apr 07

Professor Frances Ashcroft has received the American Physiological Society's highest award at its 120th annual meeting in Washington.

Professor Ashcroft is the 25th recipient of the Walter B Cannon Award, which goes to an outstanding scientist, and at the annual meeting delivered the Walter B Cannon 'Physiology in Perspective' lecture.

Professor Ashcroft is Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor in Oxford's Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, and a fellow of Trinity College. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

The award honoured her many research achievements. Working with Professor Andrew Hattersley at Exeter University, she discovered the role of ion channel malfunction in a rare genetic form of diabetes that strikes children and is known as permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus. As a result of the research, children with the condition have been able to switch from daily insulin injections to a daily pill, transforming both their lives and that of their parents.

Professor Ashcroft is also the author of Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival, a best-selling popular science book that examines the science behind how the body copes in extreme situations like mountain climbing, deep sea diving and marathon running. She has written two textbooks, Insulin: Molecular Biology to Pathology and Ion Channels and Disease, and has published more than 200 research articles in scholarly journals.

In her lecture, Professor Ashcroft talked about her area of expertise: ion channels, microscopic protein pores in the cell membrane that control which ions enter and leave. These microscopic gates into individual cells can account for some astonishing phenomena: goats that fall flat on the ground when startled; pigs that shiver themselves to death; and horses that suffer bouts of paralysis have all been traced to a malfunctioning ion channel.

Ion channels are essential for the normal functioning of all cells. The ability to see, hear, think, speak, and move arms and legs is due to the activity of ion channels in the nerve cells of the brain and in the muscle cells of the limbs. When these channels malfunction, a variety of diseases can result, including diabetes, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy and sudden cardiac death.

The 120th APS annual meeting is part of the Experimental Biology 2007 gathering and takes place April 28-May 2 2007 in Washington, DC.