Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft, recipient of the 2023 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, will deliver her Vanderbilt Prize Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in 208 Light Hall.
Ashcroft, professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Trinity College Oxford, is known internationally for her work on insulin secretion, Type 2 diabetes and neonatal diabetes.
Her discoveries involving ion channels essential for insulin secretion have advanced the understanding of Type 2 diabetes and have enabled people with neonatal diabetes, a rare form of the disease that occurs within the first six months of life, to switch from insulin injections to oral drug therapy.
Established in 2006, the Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science recognizes scientists with a stellar record of research accomplishments who also are known for mentoring others in science.
A fellow of the Royal Society of London and the United Kingdom Academy of Medical Sciences, Ashcroft has trained more than 50 scientists. She also has written two popular books about science, Life at the Extremes (2001), and The Spark of Life (2012).
The 2023 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar, Yasminye Pettway, a graduate student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who is mentored by Ashcroft, will be recognized during the lecture.
Ashcroft’s lecture is sponsored by the Offices of the Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer and the Dean of Basic Sciences, and will be livestreamed by the VUMC Office of Research at https://www.vumc.org/discovery-lecture-series/upcoming-lectures.
This site also has a complete schedule of upcoming Discovery Lectures and archived videos of previous lectures.