[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5735\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EFrom wild orchids to injection-free diabetes treatment\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I started as a naturalist, which is good training for a scientist,\u2019 said Professor Ashcroft, who now runs a laboratory at the University of Oxford, UK. \u2018Naturalists are always observing things.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer research into insulin secretion eventually led to people born with diabetes \u2013 a rare form of the disease known as neonatal diabetes \u2013 being able to take pills instead of insulin injections.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELast year she won the L\u2019Or\u00e9al-UNESCO For Women in Science Award for her work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, Prof. Ashcroft, who also writes popular science books, never planned on becoming a biologist.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a child in rural Dorset, in the southwest of England, her first ambition had been to be a farmer\u2019s wife so she could have a pony. \u2018My second was to be a doctor, and my third was to be a nature reserve warden,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut the beauty of those wild orchids changed all that.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I fell in love with them, and after that I spent much of my spare time trudging around looking for more,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe went on to study science at the University of Cambridge, UK. \u2018I can\u2019t imagine doing anything more exciting than science,\u2019 she said. \u2018The joy of science is about being the first person to see something that no-one else has seen before, and trying to puzzle out what it means.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe later moved to the University of Oxford as an independent researcher and decided to focus on how insulin is released from the pancreatic beta-cell and what goes wrong with this process in diabetes.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018I can\u2019t imagine doing anything more exciting than science. What could be more thrilling than discovering something new?\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Frances Ashcroft, University of Oxford, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027Having my own lab gave me time to think about what it was I wanted to do in the longer term \u2013 to try to answer the more difficult questions and not just the obvious ones,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe has made a number of important discoveries. As a young researcher, she showed that glucose stimulates the insulin release by closing a potassium channel. More recently, in collaboration with Professor Andrew Hattersley of Exeter University, UK, she found that mutations in the genes that code for this potassium channel cause neonatal diabetes. As the mutant channels can be closed by sulphonylurea drugs, this enabled patients to switch to drug therapy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe lion\u2019s share of Prof. Ashcroft\u0027s research funding comes from the charitable foundation The Wellcome Trust. But she has also participated in several successful EU grant proposals. \u2018EU-funded networks have been immensely valuable to my research,\u2019 she said. \u2018They\u2019ve stimulated a lot of fruitful collaboration.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer advice to a young scientist starting out on a career in science is that perseverance is key.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027Science is the most exciting thing there is, but remember that it isn\u0027t always easy and that some things take a very long time, so persevere and never give up. 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