Dr Frans Schuit was trained by Daniel Pipeleers in the Diabetes Research Center at the Vrije Universtiteit Brussel in Brussels, Belgium. He was awarded a PhD in 1987 and has directed his own research team since 1988, becoming the Director of the Gene Expression Unit in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology of the University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Belgium, in 2003. His research focuses on questions related to the nature of the beta cell and how its malfunction can contribute to the development of diabetes, including studying the phenomenon of heterogeneity amongst beta cells. His molecular studies have enabled a better understanding of how beta cells are regulated by glucose, incretins, and other hormones or neurotransmitters. His work on genome-wide mRNA expression analysis of pancreatic islets from normal and genetically modified mouse strains has contributed to our understanding of how beta cells are physiologically regulated, for example during feeding or pregnancy: while the initial aim of this research was to find genes that are specifically expressed in beta cells, such as the zinc transporter ZnT8, it has helped to uncover an unexpected 'mirror' situation-cell-selective inactivation of housekeeping genes, so called 'disallowed genes'.