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The Life Scientific

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The Life Scientific: Episode 22: Frances Ashcroft

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Frances Ashcroft

Episode 22

Episode 22: Frances Ashcroft

BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Frances Ashcroft

Frances Ashcroft on a lifetime spent studying the link between blood sugar and insulin.

Jim Al-Khalili talks to Frances Ashcroft about a lifetime spent studying the link between blood sugar and insulin and what goes wrong in people with diabetes.

Jim Al-Khalili talks to this year's winner of the L'Oreal -UNESCO Woman in Science award, Frances Ashcroft.

After decades spent studying the link between blood sugar and insulin, she talks about the absolute thrill of discovery as well as the long lean years "in a cloud of not knowing". It's very rare indeed for a scientist to see any medical benefit from their research but Frances Ashcroft has been lucky. Her scientific understanding of a key biochemical mechanism in our pancreatic cells has helped transform the lives of hundreds of children who are born with diabetes, enabling them to come off insulin injections and instead take a daily pill. 

Producer: Anna Buckley 

And yet, thirty years on, it's still not clear precisely what goes wrong with the mechanism in the much more common Type II diabetes, now affecting hundreds of millions.

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Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future

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Episode 22: Frances Ashcroft

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