Two professors awarded for their work on metabolic diseases

The Baillet Latour Fund awarded the Health Prize to Professor Andrew T. Hattersley and the Medical Research Scholarship to Professor Sarah-Maria Fendt on Tuesday, it announced in a press release. This 2020 edition has been placed under the theme of metabolic diseases.

Professor Andrew T. Hattersley was awarded the Health Prize, “the most important international scientific prize awarded in Belgium”, for his fundamental discoveries on the genetic forms of diabetes. The winner wins the sum of 250,000 euros.

Andrew Hattersley conducted most of the studies that carefully characterized patients’ diabetes and clinical symptoms, the Fund says. His research has been instrumental in improving the diagnosis, management and treatment of patients with monogenic diabetes around the world. His major breakthrough was the integration of beta cell science into patient treatment.

Each year, the Baillet Latour Fund also awards a medical research grant to a young group leader to fund a research project in a Belgian university or university hospital. His laboratory is assigned an annual sum of 150,000 euros for three years with a possible extension of two years. This year it was awarded to Professor Sarah-Maria Fendt for her research on the formation of cancer metastases.

Research by Sarah-Maria Fendt, associate professor in the department of oncology at KU Leuven and principal investigator at the cancer biology center at Vlaams Institute voor Biotechnology (VIB), contributed to a fundamental shift in understanding the formation of metastases. They found that metastatic cancer cells needed specific small molecules called metabolites and that metastasis formation could be prevented by inhibiting the use of these metabolites. The Baillet Latour Prize will allow Prof. Fendt and his team to expand their research on this topic.