Chantal Mathieu is Professor of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg, KU Leuven. In her role as a clinical diabetologist, she is involved in the treatment of patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Her main basic research interests focus on the pathogenesis and prevention of type 1 diabetes, as well as islet transplantation. Chantal is also active in the clinical organization of diabetes care & patient education. She is the author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers & she is currently the President of the Flemish Diabetes Association. After graduating from the University of Leuven as MD in 1988 she went on to study for a PhD examining pathogenetical & therapeutical aspects of immune intervention in animal models of type 1 diabetes.
First & foremost, Chantal is a physician who likes to do research. As an endocrinologist at University Hospitals Leuven, she has daily contact with patients with diabetes. Dealing with the disease day in & day out, her research is all about helping & healing her patients.
As her patients stimulate her to continue her research, Chantal tries to examine what diabetes is & how it arises. If we know that, we can treat it more effectively – & hopefully prevent & cure the disease eventually. For her it is the most interesting clinical research there is because she works in various directions: from test tubes to lab animals to patients & back.