He has a longstanding interest and expertise in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and conducted basic research focusing on the vascular changes in steatosis and their contribution to disease progression. His research unit continues to study pathophysiological mechanisms of NASH. He also conducts clinical research, and his unit is a partner in several research consortia supported by the European Commission. He and his unit participate in most of the clinical trials in the field, and he is a scientific committee member involved in the design of several phase 2 and one of the current phase 3 trials in NAFLD. He is a senior clinical researcher for the Research Fund of the Flemish government. He is board member of several scientific societies and currently also scientific coordinator of the Belgian week of Gastroenterology. Prof. Dr. Francque obtained his MD at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1994 and was subsequently trained in internal medicine and in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium and at the Department of Hepatology of the Beaujon hospital, Clichy, France.

Initially in chronic viral hepatitis C and now in NAFLD, he has contributed to the development and validation of several tests now widely used in clinical practice. He coordinates several research programs on the non-invasive diagnosis, screening, and prognosis assessment in steatotic liver diseases through national research programs, multicenter cohorts, and an international academic/industrial network. He is the Head of the HIFIH Laboratory (SFR ICAT 4208) at Angers University, and the Head of the Hepato-Gastroenterology Department at Angers University Hospital.

She was fellow at the Hepatology and Gastroenterology department at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, with special focus on MASLD, leading to a Joint PhD between the University of Bari, Italy and the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2014. She is currently Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp. She participates in several clinical trials in MASLD and she is involved in different research consortia supported by the European Commission. Her research is mainly focused on the pathophysiological mechanisms of MASLD, particularly on the metabolic and immunological disorders associated to MASLD.