Mathieu, Prof. Chantal

Chantal Mathieu is a physician-scientist who has contributed to the field of diabetes and endocrinology both on the basic and the clinical research side. Her work in animal models of type 1 diabetes has established 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 as immune modulator and her demonstration of the potential of Lactococcus Lactis as carrier tool for peptides and proteins was the basis for a worldwide clinical trial in people with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. Her research group was amongst the first to demonstrate the relevance of post-translational modifications of beta-cell peptides and proteins in autoantigen generation in murine and human type 1 diabetes. Her clinical work involving new products and treatment paradigms in diabetes, like new insulins, adjunct therapies in type 1 diabetes and diagnosis of gestational diabetes as well as her educational skills have made her a prominent speaker in international fora. Finally, her organizational skills were instrumental in shaping diabetes care in Belgium, promoting shared-care, positioning of diabetes education and reimbursement of novel technologies. She is a co-author of several consensus papers, including the 2018-19 ADA/EASD Consensus on glucose lowering therapies in type 2 diabetes. She leads presently the private-public partnership INNODIA sponsored through the EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (www.innodia.eu). This pan-European INNODIA project is a consortium of over 40 academic and industry partner institutions and 50 satellite clinical recruitment centers on biomarker discovery and interventions targeting prevention and arrest of type 1 diabetes. She has, from the beginning of the INNODIA project, put the people and families living with type 1 diabetes at the center of the work, through the establishment of the Patient Advisory Committee. Since 2018, she is (senior) vice-president of EASD (www.easd.org), chair of postgraduate education where she established an e-learning platform (www.easd-elearning.org) and since 2020 she chairs the European Diabetes Forum (www.eudf.org).