Dr Vincent Poitout received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the École Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort in 1991 and his PhD degree from the Université Paris 6 in 1993. He did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, under the guidance of Dr Paul Robertson between 1993 and 1995. He was then recruited as a scientist at the French national institutes of health research (INSERM) and worked at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris, France. In 1998 Dr Poitout was recruited as Principal Scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute in Seattle, WA, USA. He was also appointed Affiliate Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA in 2000. In 2005, Dr Poitout was recruited as Associate Professor of Medicine, Nutrition, and Biochemistry at the Université de Montréal, QC, Canada, and his laboratory is located within the Montreal Diabetes Research Center at the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM). He was appointed as Associate Scientific Director – Basic Research at the CRCHUM and Scientific Director in 2011. Dr Poitout was promoted to Full Professor of Medicine at the Université de Montréal in 2008 and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at McGill University in 2012. Since September 2015, he is the Director of research at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and the Scientific Director of the CHUM Research Center (CRCHUM).

Dr Poitout is the former Chair of the American Diabetes Association’s Grant Review Panel, a former member of the Editorial Board of Endocrinology and a current Editorial Board member of Diabetes and The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr Poitout’s research is funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Diabetes Association. Dr Poitout received several awards including the Albert Renold Fellowship from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the Thomas R. Lee Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association, the Apollinaire Bouchardat Award from the Journées Annuelles de Diabétologie de l’Hôtel-Dieu, and the Young Scientist Award from the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Dr Poitout holds the Canada Research Chair in Diabetes and Pancreatic β-cell Function

Our group is involved with 4 research projects:

1- Mechanisms by which fatty acids acutely stimulate insulin secretion, and more precisely the role of the GPR40 receptor. Using GPR40 knock-out mice, we have shown that GPR40 mediates approximately 50% of the stimulatory effect of fatty acids on insulin secretion in vitro and in vivo, but is not implicated in their long-term, deleterious effects on ß-cell function.

2- We are studying the molecular mechanisms by which chronic fatty acids inhibit insulin gene expression. We have shown that this involves a blockade of the nuclear translocation of the transcription factor Pdx-1, as well as reduced expression of the transcription factor MafA. We are currently investigating the signaling pathways involved in palmitate inhibition of insulin gene expression.

3- We have established an in vivo model of nutrient excess by chronic perfusion in the rat. In collaboration with the group of Marc Prentki, we are now examining the effects of age and genetic predisposition on the development of diabetes in this model.

4- In collaboration with the group of Richard Smith at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Richmond, WA, we are carrying out a study which aims to perform proteomics and metabolomics profiling of isolated human islets and to determine if changes in these global profiles correlate with islet function in vitro and in vivo, to establish predictive criteria of islet function prior to transplantation.