From the genetics of type 2 diabetes to personalized medicine for diabetic patients

At the Prestige Conference on November 13, Dr. Philippe Froguel, Professor of Endocrinology at CHU Lille, will demonstrate how advances in the genetic and epigenetic dissection of type 2 diabetes have improved our understanding of its pathophysiology, and how patient genetics can enable a transition to more effective, personalized precision medicine.

About the speaker

Philippe Froguel, MD, PhD, works at Lille University hospital as Prof of Endocrinology and at Imperial College London as Prof and chair of Genomic Medicine. In Lille, he is director of the Inserm/CNRS/Pasteur/Lille University research group "Functional(epi)genomics and mechanisms of type 2 diabetes and related disorders”, Director of the laboratory of excellence European Genomic Institute for Diabetes research (EGID) and of the French National Center for Precision Medicine in diabetes PreciDIAB.

PF's scientific carrier is focused on the genetics of diabetes and obesity and its impact for personalized metabolic medicine. PF has identified in 1992 the first diabetes gene (glucokinase), in 1998 the most prevalent cause of monogenic obesity (MC4R), and the first recessive mutation causing obesity in the leptin receptor gene. He discovered in 2006 the role of the sulfonylurea receptor gene ABCC8 in monogenic diabetes and in 2010-2011 the first evidence that Copy Number Variation causes extreme obesity or leanness depending of the quantity of DNA.

He discovered in 2007 the first gene for common obesity (FTO) and has published in 2007 the first Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) in T2D. Later, he found first gene frequent variants controlling glycemia (in GCPC2) and discovered the role of the melatonin pathway (through frequent and rare variants in MTNR1B) in T2D risk.

Recently, he showed that >5% of patients with apparent common T2D carry pathogenic mutations in actionable genes opening a path to precision medicine. PF objective is the identification of diabetic patients that should benefit from customized treatments controlling diabetes and also preventing complications that also have a genetic basis. To progress toward this direction PF have created the unique in France LIGAN Genomic Center specialized in integrated multiomics.