Marie Christine Vantyghem (MD, PhD) is Professor of Endocrinology-Diabetology and head of the Endocrinology-Diabetology-Metabolism and Nutrition Department at the Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Lille, France, which cares for a population of 4 million people. She belongs to the INSERM U1190 dedicated to translational research in diabetes at the European Institute for the Study of Diabetes (EGID).
Her main research areas are islet transplantation and lipodystrophy syndromes
In the islet transplantation field, she has been involved in the very first trial in Lille (France), with Professors Francois Pattou and Julie Kerr-Conte. She was in charge of the selection and follow-up of transplanted patients with, as of 2021, a cohort of more than 60 transplanted patients. She has been involved in national islet transplantation trials, with a first randomised trial recently published as well as the ten-year results of islet-transplanted patients at Lille University Hospital .
In the lipodystrophy field, she cares for a large cohort of more than 200 patients. A biobank (plasmatheque, DNAtheque and adipose tissue bank) has been organised under the name project PHRC (Hospital Project for Clinical Research) IL7 lipodystrophies dedicated to the link between adipocytes and innate immunity. Lille University Hospital belongs to FIRENDO, a network for rare endocrine diseases, including the PRISIS reference centre, dedicated to rare diseases of insulin secretion and insulin resistance, especially lipodystrophy syndromes.
Author of more than 230 papers, Professor Vantyghem is a former member of the executive board of the French Endocrine Society, a member of the European Society of Endocrinology, the Endocrine Society, the French and European Societies of Transplantation and has been involved in two FP7 programmes. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Annals of Endocrinology.