Frans Gorus
University Hospital Brussels - Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel
Frans Gorus, MD PhD, has been principal investigator at the Diabetes Research Center at the Brussels Free University–VUB for more than 35 years, and is presently consultant at the Clinical Biology of Diabetes Unit which he founded more than 25 years ago at the University Hospital-UZ Brussel. This unit is integrated in the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Radioimmunology which is equipped for isotopic and non-isotopic immunoassays, for in-house labelling and purification of antigens and antibodies, and for genetic analyses. The unit serves as reference laboratory for the Belgian Diabetes Registry and for the clinical trials undertaken by the Center for Beta Cell Therapy in Diabetes. It has developed immune, hormonal and genetic markers of diabetes and implemented them in large registry-based groups of patients and relatives to characterize them and to devise criteria for selection, monitoring and clinical outcome of participants in innovative beta cell therapy trials. The reference center participates regularly in (inter)national workshops for harmonization and quality control of assays. He is (co)author of more than 170 peer-reviewed papers, member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine, and recipient of several scientific awards.