Poll Lecture features head of European consortium on diabetes and obesity

Dr. Philippe Froguel, an expert on the genetics of type 2, or non-insulin-dependent, diabetes and obesity, will present the 10th annual Harvey and Judy Poll Visiting Scholar Lecture. Froguel is based at the University of Lille and its medical school in Lille, France.

He will give the free public lecture on “Genetic Causes of Obesity and Diabetes” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 15, in K-069 of the Fialkow Biomedical Research Pavilion at the Health Sciences Center. The lecture is sponsored by the School of Medicine and the Robert H. Williams Laboratory.

Froguel, who earned a medical degree in 1984 and a Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of Paris, specializes in human biology, physiology and the pathophysiology of human nutrition. He was coordinator from 1996 to 1999 of the European program called “Paradigm,” which examines the genetics of non-insulin-dependent diabetes as a paradigm for diseases with many causative factors. He also chaired the steering committee for a consortium on the genetics of Type 2 diabetes and obesity, which included participation by the University of Oxford and the British Diabetic Association, the University of Columbia and the Eli-Lily company.

He has received many prestigious awards, including the Career Development Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Minkowski Prize of the European Association of the Study of Diabetes, and is a member of organizations such as the American Diabetes Association, the French Association for the Study of Diabetes and Metabolic Disease and the European group. He is an internationally known speaker who has addressed scientists in Brazil, Taiwan and Japan, as well as Europe and the United States.

While at the UW, Froguel will also give a scientific seminar sponsored by the Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 14, in room K-069 of the Health Sciences Center. His topic for that presentation is “Pancreatic Nuclear Factors in Type II Diabetes.”

The Harvey and Judy Poll Visiting Scholar Endowment was established in 1990. The Polls have a long-standing interest in diabetes research and its advancement at the UW and other institutions in the Seattle area. The Poll Endowment makes it possible to invite distinguished international scholars in the field of diabetes research to the UW each year, fostering new research collaborations. For more information or to attend the lecture, contact Jennifer Hazelbrook at (206) 543-8205. ¶