Banting Medal for Frances Ashcroft

Trinity Professorial Fellow Dame Frances Ashcroft has been awarded the 2022 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement by the American Diabetes Association. The award recognises significant, long-term contributions to the understanding, treatment, or prevention of diabetes. 

The medal is awarded in recognition of Professor Ashcroft’s work in advancing understanding of insulin secretion and a type of diabetes that develops in the first months of life. She has discovered the missing link connecting an increase in the blood sugar level after a meal to secretion of the hormone insulin. Professor Ashcroft has discovered that the ATP‐sensitive potassium (K_ATP) channel serves as the molecular link between glucose elevation and insulin secretion. This research helped define the field of ‘channelopathies’, establishing the role of the KATP channel in insulin secretion. Mutations in K_ATP channel genes cause a rare inherited form of diabetes (neonatal diabetes), and her work has transformed the understanding and treatment of neonatal diabetes.

Professor Ashcroft is one of seven recipients of the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) 2022 National Scientific and Health Care Achievement Awards, which will be presented in June at the ADA’s 82nd Scientific Sessions – the world’s largest scientific meeting focused on diabetes research, prevention, and care.