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Professor Frances Ashcroft has been selected as the recipient of the Jacobæus Prize 2014. The Prize is awarded annually by the Novo Nordisk Foundation to an internationally recognized researcher for extraordinary achievements within medical research.

Source: Novo Nordisk Fonden

 

Frances Ashcroft, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, is awarded the Jacobæus Prize for her achievements within diabetes research.

Her research aims to elucidate how changes in blood glucose levels regulate insulin secretion from the pancreas and how this process is impaired in diabetes.

Frances Ashcroft has discovered that the ATP‐sensitive potassium (KATP) channel serves as the molecular link between glucose elevation and insulin secretion. Mutations in KATP channel genes cause a rare inherited form of diabetes (neonatal diabetes), and her work has helped enable patients with this disorder to switch from insulin injections to drug therapy.

As well, she has written two books for the general reader: Life at the Extremes and The Spark of Life.

Professor Ashcroft says:

- It is a very great honour to be awarded the 2014 Jacobæus Prize. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious prizes in science, and it recognizes not only my contribution, but also that of my team and collaborators. I look forward to visiting Copenhagen to present our latest work on the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of insulin secretion in health and in diabetes.

Lecture in Copenhagen

The Jacobæus Prize is unanimously awarded by the Nordic Research Committee, the committee of the Novo Nordisk Foundation which awards the Prize. Professor Ashcroft is the 69th recipient of the Prize, which was established in 1939 and is the oldest prize of the Foundation. The Prize includes an amount of DKK 100,000 and the prizewinner is invited to give a lecture on her research, the H.C. Jacobæus Lecture.

The lecture takes place at the annual H.C. Jacobæus Symposium, this year held at the University of Copenhagen on December 9. The event is open to the press.

The Prize honors Hans Christian Jacobæus (1879-1937), who was a respected and well-known Swedish professor and pioneering clinical researcher within the field of lung physiology and pathophysiology. His research includes the development of a method for exploring the pleural cavity (thoracoscopy) using a cystoscope, which greatly improved the diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases, especially tuberculosis.

Further information:

Christian Mostrup Scheel, Press Officer, Novo Nordisk Foundation, cims@novo.dk, mobile +45 3067 4805

 

Source: http://www.novonordiskfonden.dk/en/content/british-professor-wins-jacobaeus-prize-2014