Wit, J.M.

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Obituary: Dr. Marie-Jose Walenkamp (1966-2021)Wit, J.M.CitationWit, J. M. (2021). Obituary: Dr. Marie-Jose Walenkamp (1966-2021). Frontiers InEndocrinology, 12. doi:10.3389/fendo.2021.806985 Version: Publisher's VersionLicense: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenseDownloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3576001 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable).Frontiers in Endocrinology | www.frontiersiEdited by:Michael A. Weiss,Indiana University, United StatesReviewed by:Corrado Italo Angelini,University of Padua, ItalyPierre De Meyts,Université Catholique de Louvain,Belgium*Correspondence:Jan M. Witj.m.wit@lumc.nl†On behalf of Drs. Wilma Oostdijk(Leiden), Paul van Trotsenburg andJoost Rotteveel (AmsterdamUniversity Medical Centers)Specialty section:This article was submitted toMolecular and StructuralEndocrinology,a section of the journalFrontiers in EndocrinologyReceived: 01 November 2021Accepted: 16 November 2021Published: 09 December 2021Citation:Wit JM (2021) Obituary:Dr.Marie-JoséWalenkamp (1966-2021).Front. Endocrinol. 12:806985.doi: 10.3389/fendo.2021.806985OPINIONpublished: 09 December 2021doi: 10.3389/fendo.2021.806985Obituary: Dr. Marie-José Walenkamp(1966-2021)Jan M. Wit*†Willem-Alexander Children’s Hospital, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Leiden University Medical Center,Leiden, NetherlandsKeywords: growth, growth hormone, IGF-I - insulinlike growth factor 1, short stature, genetic defectsTo the great sadness of her husband, daughters, parents, other family members, friends andcolleagues, our long-time collaborator Dr. M.J.E (Marie-José) Walenkamp, pediatricendocrinologist at Amsterdam University Medical Centers, the Netherlands, passed away onMarch 9, 2021 at the age of 54 years, six months after she was diagnosed with an untreatableform of cancer. Her untimely death is not only a great loss for her family, friends and colleagues, butalso for the Dutch and international pediatric endocrine communities.Marie-José was born in 1966 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. She graduated as MD at the MedicalFaculty of Utrecht University in 1993. Her first scientific paper was the result of a research electiveon four children with a combination of growth hormone, TSH and prolactin deficiency from twofamilies, who later were shown to be the first cases carrying pathogenic variants in POU1F1. She wastrained in pediatrics at the Willem-Alexander Children’s Hospital of the Leiden University MedicalCenter (LUMC) and at the Juliana Children’s Hospital in The Hague. She started her fellowship andscientific career in pediatric endocrinology at the LUMC in 2000 under the mentorship of Dr.Wilma Oostdijk and myself. Besides a substantial number of excellent scientific papers this resultedin co-founding the Leiden Working Group on Genetics of Growth in 2006. In 2007 she successfullydefended her PhD thesis “Genetic Disorders in the Growth Hormone-IGF-I Axis” atLeiden University.In 2008, she started a new position as pediatric endocrinologist at the Department of Pediatrics,VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, recently joined with that of the University ofAmsterdam (Amsterdam University Medical Centers), in close collaboration with Prof. Paul vanTrotsenburg, Dr. Joost Rotteveel and other colleagues. Together with a geneticist she initiated anovel joint outpatient clinic for children with growth disorders. She was an excellent clinician, andwas universally praised by her patients and their parents.Marie-José made many important contributions to clinical pediatric endocrine research, inparticular on genetic defects of the growth hormone-IGF-I axis associated with short or tall stature.For example, she described the first case carrying a homozygous pathogenic IGF1 variant (1), thefirst case with a homozygous STAT5B defect without severe immunological disturbance (2), andcases with homozygous IGFALS variants, heterozygous IGF1R variants and heterozygous IGF1variants. She also described a novel cause of growth hormone insensitivity due to a genetic variant inthe gene encoding IkappaB, and a child with tall stature caused by a duplication of IGF1R. Based ona large group of patients with heterozygous loss-of-function IGF1R variants, she reported a clinicalscore to select short children for genetic testing of IGF1R (3).Marie-José was also actively involved in national professional organizations, a.o. by serving assecretary to the Dutch Growth Hormone Advisory Group (2010-2014). From 2014 onward, shen.org December 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 8069851Marie-José Walenkamp at 49 years of age.Wit In Memoriam Marie-Jose Walenkampserved as principal investigator of a nation-wide study on theeffect of discontinuing recombinant human growth hormonetreatment in adolescents who showed a normal result of a GHstimulation test in mid-puberty, in contrast to a low GH peak inchildhood. Besides her passion for clinical and scientific pediatricendocrinology, Marie-José also had a keen interest in improvingeducation in pediatric endocrinology, nationally as well asinternationally and in developing novel general trainingprograms for pediatric residents.Frontiers in Endocrinology | www.frontiersin.org December 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 8069852We are very sad to miss Marie-José’s kind and inspiringpersonality, and she is missed by many others. She was anexceptional role model for women in medicine and science.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSThe author confirms being the sole contributor of this work andhas approved it for publication.REFERENCES1. Walenkamp MJE, Karperien M, Pereira AM, Hilhorst-Hofstee Y, van Doorn J,Chen JW, et al. Homozygous and Heterozygous Expression of a Novel Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I Mutation. J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2005) 90:2855–64.doi: 10.1210/jc.2004-12542. Walenkamp MJE, Vidarsdottir S, Pereira AM, Karperien M, van Doorn J,v an Duyvenvoo rde HA , e t a l . G rowth Hormone Se c r e t i onand Immunological Function of a Male Patient with a HomozygousSTAT5b Mutation. Eur J Endocrinol (2007) 156:155–65. doi: 10.1530/eje.1.023273. Walenkamp MJE, Robers JML, Wit JM, Zandwijken GRJ, vanDuyvenvoorde HA, Oostdijk W, et al. Phenotypic Features and Responseto Growth Hormone Treatment of Patients with a Molecular Defect of theIGF-1 Receptor. J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2019) 104:3157–71. doi:10.1210/jc.2018-02065Conflict of Interest: The author declares that the research was conducted in theabsence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as apotential conflict of interest.Publisher’s Note: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authorsand do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those ofthe publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated inthis article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed orendorsed by the publisher.Copyright © 2021Wit. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution orreproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and thecopyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal iscited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution orreproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Obituary: Dr. Marie-Jose Walenkamp (1966-2021)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2021.806985

Obituary: Dr. Marie-Jose Walenkamp (1966-2021)

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