Marc Prentki

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARC PRENTKI

Marc Prentki was trained in Biochemistry at the University of Geneva where he obtained a Ph.D. degree under the direction of Dr. Bernard Jeanrenaud, and subsequently joined the laboratory of Prof. Albert Renold where he worked as a post-doctoral fellow on intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis and insulin secretion. He then moved to the University of Pennsylvania to work as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics on the coupling mechanisms of fuel induced insulin secretion, a topic that has remained a main area of his research. He returned to Geneva for seven years to work at the Institut de Biochimie Clinique. In 1994 he joined the Departments of Nutrition and Biochemistry at the University of Montreal where he is now full Professor. His early work contributed to the identification of the role of various organelles in intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis and of inositol 3-phosphate as a signaling molecule mediating Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum. He then focused his research at determining the metabolic pathways and signals implicated in glucose induced insulin secretion. Over the years his research showed a role for anaplerosis, pyruvate cycling processes and lipid signaling in fuel induced insulin secretion. He identified malonyl-CoA as a signal that regulates insulin secretion and appetite. Among other achievements he developed the concept of glucolipotoxicity, whereby elevated glucose and fat synergize to induce tissue defects, and he initially showed that GLP-1 can promote ß-cell growth. Marc Prentki founded the Montreal Diabetes Research Center that he currently directs. He earned the young investigator award of the Federations of European Endocrine Societies in 1994, a Canadian Research Chair in diabetes and metabolism in 2006, and was awarded the Albert Renold prize of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in 2011.