Vincent Poitout, Director of Research at the CHUM, will be our guest for the CRCHUM Interaxes Conference this December 9^th, “How the Pancreatic Beta-Cell Adapts to its Metabolic Environment”. He is also the CRCHUM’s Scientific Director and a full professor in the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Poitout was the Canada Research Chair in Diabetes and Pancreatic Beta-Cell Function from 2006 to 2020 and is a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

About the conference

Glycemia is usually maintained within a narrow range thanks to a system of homeostatic regulation, which involves insulin, a hormone produced by the beta cells of the pancreas. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90%  of cases of diabetes.

All forms of this type of diabetes are characterized by insufficient secretion of insulin. Pancreatic beta cells have a remarkable ability to adapt to changes in the metabolic environment, notably through an increase in their functional mass during physiological (puberty, pregnancy) or pathological (obesity) episodes of resistance by peripheral tissue to the action of insulin.

When the beta cell’s ability to adapt is overwhelmed, glycemia is no longer controlled, which is when diabetes occurs. Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the adaptation of the beta cell to insulin resistance conditions will allow us to identify new therapeutic approaches to prevent its dysfunction and the onset of type 2 diabetes. 

About Dr. Poitout

Dr. Poitout received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the École Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort and his PhD in Life Sciences from the Université Paris 6. He then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN and was an INSERM scientist at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris.

Then he became a researcher at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute in Seattle, WA, before joining the Université de Montréal in 2005. Dr. Poitout is a full professor of medicine at the Université de Montréal and the Director of Research of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal.

He was the chairman of the Grant Review Committee of the American Diabetes Association and of the National Research Council of Diabetes Canada. He has been a member of the board of directors of the American Diabetes Association, a member of the editorial committees of Diabetes and the Journal of Biological Chemistry and associate editor for Diabetologia.