Benoit Viollet is research director at INSERM and is leading the team "Physiopathology of AMPK and AMPK-related protein kinase in diabetes and obesity" at Institut Cochin in Paris. During the last decade, his team has investigated by the extensive use of knock-out mouse models the function of LKB1/AMPK signalling in the regulation of cellular energy balance and metabolic homeostasis. By investigating how AMPK integrates stress responses such as exercise as well as nutrient and hormonal signals, his team established that AMPK provides an attractive target for therapeutic intervention in the treatment of metabolic disorders. Recently, his team has focussed on the function of AMPK in gastrointestinal tract and on the elucidation of the role of the AMPK-related protein kinase SIK in the control of hepatic glucose production. The overall objective of his team is to assess their utility in diagnosis and efficacy in therapeutics for type 2 diabetes and obesity.