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SUMMARY:SCISOC TALK: ATP-sensitive potassium channels and neonatal diabete
 s – from molecule to new therapy and beyond. - Professor Dame Frances As
 hcroft\, Professor of Physiology at Oxford University
DTSTART:20161104T200000Z
DTEND:20161104T213000Z
UID:TALK68599@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Benjamin Beresford-Jones
DESCRIPTION:Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft’s discovery that blood gluco
 se levels are coupled to insulin levels via the activity of ATP-sensitive 
 Potassium channels was a huge breakthrough in our understanding of diabete
 s and its treatment. Professor Ashcroft will discuss how the KATP channel 
 regulates insulin secretion and how understanding their function has enabl
 ed many patients born with neonatal diabetes to switch from insulin inject
 ions to drug therapy\, with considerable improvement in both their clinica
 l condition and quality of life. She will also discuss why some KATP chann
 el mutations cause neurological disorders.\n \nThe speaker: Professor Dame
  Frances Ashcroft is Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford a
 nd a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. Her research focuses on how ch
 anges in blood glucose levels regulate insulin secretion from the pancreat
 ic beta-cells and how this process is impaired in diabetes. Delete - alrea
 dy said in blurb [She discovered that the ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) c
 hannel 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 enabled patients with this
  disorder to switch from insulin injections to drug therapy.] Frances has 
 also written two popular science books: Life at the Extremes - the science
  of survival (HarperCollins\, 2000) and The Spark of Life - electricity in
  the human body\, (Penguin 2012). She has won several awards for her resea
 rch and the Lewis Thomas Prize for Science Writing.
LOCATION:Department of Pharmacology Lecture Theatre\, Tennis Court Road
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