Frances Ashcroft is currently the Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on how a rise in blood sugar level causes the release of the hormone insulin from the pancreas. Fran studies what goes wrong in this process in people who have a disease called type 2 diabetes. She studies how drugs can be used to treat this condition and produce a beneficial effect.

Fran has published many scientific papers and written three books including a popular science work called Life at the Extremes. Fran is actively involved in the public understanding of science and is interested in presenting her work in different ways, for example, through art and poetry.