Summary
Dr Holger Auner received his MD from Karl-Franzens University Graz, Austria, where he also trained in Internal Medicine/Haematology-Oncology and studied genetic instability in myeloid leukaemias in the laboratory of Professor Heinz Sill. He then joined the group of Professor Niall Dillon at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre as a Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund Junior Research Fellow and obtained his PhD for work on plasma cell biology from Imperial College London. Subsequently, he was the Stem Cell Transplant Co-ordinator in the Centre for Haematology at Hammersmith Hospital. He was awarded a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2012 and a Cancer Research UK Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2019, when he became Head of Translational Research at Imperial's newly established Hugh and Josseline Langmuir Centre for Myeloma Research. In 2022, Dr Auner became Professor of Clinical and Molecular Haemato-oncology at Imperial College. Dr Auner’s primary research interest is to better understand the molecular mechanisms that coordinate protein degradation pathways with cellular metabolism in multiple myeloma and other cancers, with the ultimate goal of finding novel therapeutic approaches. His lab, the Cancer Cell Protein Metabolism group, also investigates how proteomic and metabolic homeostasis depend on tissue physical properties and vice versa, using time-resolved omics approaches in a range of cross-disciplinary collaborations. Dr Auner is an active member of the European Myeloma Network (EMN), was Principal Investigator for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust for several phase 1 to 3 national and international trials, and Translational Research Lead of the UK Myeloma Research Alliance (2020 - 2023). In April 2023, he became Head of the Hematology service and central hematology laboratory at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Full Professor at the University of Lausanne.
***LAB NEWS***
04-2023 - Prof Auner and part of the team relocate to The University Hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland) while aspects of the research programme continue at Imperial for some time to come!
04/2022 - we welcome Jinglin Zhou who is joining us for PhD studies after obtaining an MSc in Medical Genetics &Genomics at the University of Glasgow.
03/2022 - Our Satellite Group at The Francis Crick Institute is officially open!
02/2022 - we welcome Jessica Hill, who is coming back for PhD studies after doing an MRes Cancer Biology project with us in 2020.
04/2021 - Saavedra-Garcia et al, 'Systems level profiling of chemotherapy-induced stress resolution in cancer cells reveals druggable trade-offs' is published in PNAS (https://www.pnas.org/content/118/17/e2018229118)
02/2021 - congratulations to Hibah Alsadah on passing her PhD viva!
11/2020 - on the clinical side, the global phase 3 BOSTON trial is published in THE LANCET - Selinexor added to once weekly Vd improves PFS compared to twice weekly Vd
12/2019 congratulations to Sandra Loaiza on passing her PhD viva without corrections!
11/2019 -- work on the CRUK ACSF project officially starts; read an interview with Dr Auner here https://imperialbrc.nihr.ac.uk/2019/11/01/mm-cruk/
07/2019 -- we have started work on our CRUK Small Molecule Drug Discovery Project award (supported by SU2C)
01/2019 --- Parzych K et al, 'The coordinated action of VCP/p97 and GCN2 regulates cancer cell metabolism and proteostasis during nutrient limitation' is published in ONCOGENE
11/2018 --- Loaiza et al, 'An engineered, quantifiable in vitro model for analysing the effect of proteostasis-targeting drugs on tissue physical properties' is published in BIOMATERIALS
10/2018 --- the Gentleman lab publish a paper to which we contributed in NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (Ferreira et al, 'Bi-directional cell-pericellular matrix interactions direct stem cell fate')
Auner lab members (2022-2023)
Dr Monica Roman-Trufero (postdoc)
Dr Maxmilan Jeyakumar (postdoc)
Abigail Gaffar MSc (Research Assistant & Lab Manager, Health & Safety lead)
Ziqian Yan (RA and PhD candidate - thesis submitted)
Jessica Hill (PhD student)
Jinglin Zhou (PhD student)
Dimitrios Potolidis (MRes Clinical Research & Clinical Research Fellow)
Previous lab members (and subsequent destinations)
Audrey Ko (BSc Medical Biosciences)
Margarida Arantes e Oliveira Faria (MSc Immunology)
Sixiao Lu (MSc Immunology)
Priyanka Trivedi (BSc Immunity and Infection)
Kin Ming (Timothy) Wong (UROP project 2021 --> BSc Medical Biosciences)
Lok Io U (Cherry) (MRes Clinical Research 2021 --> PhD @ Cambridge)
Itziar Aranguren Abeigon (MSc Immunology 2021)
Paula Saavedra Garcia PhD (post-doc 2018-2021) --> Senior Postdoctoral Scientist @ KU Leuven (Belgium)
Hibah Al-Sadah (PhD student 2017 -2021; --> Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, College of Medicine at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia)
Marilena Christoforou (Research Assistant 2019-2021; --> PhD @ Queen Mary University of London)
Elena Lopez-Jimenez (post-doc, 2019-2020)
Jessica Hill (MRes Cancer Biology 2020)
Ricardo Minaya-Sainz (MRes Cancer Biology 2019/20 --> MSc Radiation Biology @Oxford)
Sandra Loaiza (PhD student, completed 2020 --> Head of Operations and Regulatory Affairs at the John Goldman Centre for Cellular Therapy, Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust)
Yirun Miao (BSc Medical Biosciences 2019/20; --> MSc Integrated Immunology @ Oxford, PhD @ CeMM Vienna)
Tomohito Shimada (Tokyo MDU exchange student, 2019)
Xiaobei Xiong (MRes Cancer Biology, 2019)
Lucy Penfold (maternity cover post-doc, 2018; --> post-doc @ MRC LIMS)
Katarzyna Parzych (post-doc, 2012-2018; --> Clinical Trials Coordinator @ UCLH)
Desislava Kuzeva (MRes Cancer Biology, 2016/17; --> PhD @ King's College London)
Dinusha Fernando (MRes Cancer Biology, 2017/18; --> Research Technician in Cancer Immunotherapy at UCL)
Angie Ruiz Tellez (MSc Molecular Medicine, 2017; --> Research Intern @ Imperial)
Noushin Masoudi (MSc in Genes, Drugs and Stem Cells, 2017; --> PhD @ Imperial)
Max Zi Chen (maternity cover post-doc, 2015; --> post-doc @ Imperial then in Cambridge)
Tamara Chinn (Whitaker Fellow; with Dr Eileen Gentleman, King's College London, 2014-2015; --> Medical School in the US --> Paediatric Trainee)
Viktoria Holzmann (Erasmus/UROP BSc student, 2016; --> Masters & PhD in Vienna, Austria)
Research Collaborations
Professor Anastasios Karadimitris, Imperial College London
Professor Hector Keun, Imperial College London
Professor Matt Fuchter, Imperial College London
Dr Vahid Shahrezaei, Imperial College London
Dr Eileen Gentleman, King's College London
Dr Mariia Yuneva, Francis Crick Institute, London
Dr Glenn Masson, Dundee
Dr Martin Kaiser, The Institut of Cancer Research, London/Sutton
Professor Kwee Yong, UCL
Dr Eric Chevet, French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm), Rennes
Professor Monika Engelhardt, Freiburg, Germany
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Auner HW, Gavriatopoulou M, Delimpasi S, et al., 2021, Effect of age and frailty on the efficacy and tolerability of once-weekly selinexor, bortezomib, and dexamethasone in previously treated multiple myeloma, American Journal of Hematology, Vol:96, ISSN:0361-8609, Pages:708-718
Saavedra-Garcia P, Roman-Trufero M, Al-Sadah HA, et al., 2021, Systems level profiling of chemotherapy-induced stress resolution in cancer cells reveals druggable trade-offs, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol:118, ISSN:0027-8424
Grosicki S, Simonova M, Spicka I, et al., 2020, Once-weekly selinexor, bortezomib, and dexamethasone versus twice-weekly bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients with multiple myeloma (BOSTON): a randomised, open-label phase 3 trial, The Lancet, Vol:396, ISSN:0140-6736, Pages:1563-1573
Parzych K, Saavedra Garcia P, Valbuena G, et al., 2019, The coordinated action of VCP/p97 and GCN2 regulates cancer cell metabolism and proteostasis during nutrient limitation, Oncogene, Vol:38, ISSN:0950-9232, Pages:3216-3231
Loaiza S, Ferreira SA, Chinn TM, et al., 2018, An engineered, quantifiable in vitro model for analysing the effect of proteostasis-targeting drugs on tissue physical properties., Biomaterials, Vol:183, Pages:102-113
Ferreira SA, Motwani MS, Faull PA, et al., 2018, Bi-directional cell-pericellular matrix interactions direct stem cell fate, Nature Communications, Vol:9, ISSN:2041-1723
Ferreira SA, Faull PA, Seymore AJ, et al., 2018, Neighboring cells override 3D hydrogel matrix cues to drive human MSC quiescence, Biomaterials, Vol:176, ISSN:0142-9612, Pages:13-23
Auner HW, Yong KL, 2018, More convenient proteasome inhibition for improved outcomes, Lancet Oncology, Vol:19, ISSN:1470-2045, Pages:856-858
Auner H, Parzych K, Chinn TM, et al., 2015, Inadequate fine-tuning of protein synthesis and failure of amino acid homeostasis following inhibition of the ATPase VCP/p97, Cell Death & Disease, Vol:6, ISSN:2041-4889
Auner HW, Beham-Schmid C, Dillon N, et al., 2010, The life span of short-lived plasma cells is partly determined by a block on activation of apoptotic caspases acting in combination with endoplasmic reticulum stress, Blood, Vol:116, ISSN:0006-4971, Pages:3445-3455
Sabbattini P, Canzonetta C, Sjoberg M, et al., 2007, Novel role for the Aurora B kinase in epigenetic marking of silent chromatin in differentiated postmitotic cells, EMBO Journal, Vol:26, ISSN:0261-4189, Pages:4657-4669