In addition to being the director of the Centre de recherche en Organogenèse Expérimentale/LOEX de l’Université Laval intégré au CHU de Québec, Dr. Auger is also a member of the Laval University Research Commission, and full professor in the department of surgery. In 1985, he founded the Burn Lab, which rapidly became the Experimental Organogenesis Laboratory (Laboratoire d’Organogénèse Expérimentale or LOEX), working on various technologies to develop skin substitutes. In response to the needs of treating surgeons, the LOEX continued to produce autologous skin substitutes via tissue engineering for burn victims from Montreal, Quebec and outside the province. The lab has thus generated over 200 scientific publications.
Dr. Auger’s remarkable achievements have led him receive the distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Québec in 2003 for the development of exceptional expertise in tissue engineering. He was received as a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences as well as for l’Académie des Grands Québécois of the Quebec Chamber of Commerce. He received the Gloire de l’Escolle Medal, a distinction given to an honorable graduate of Laval University having distinguished himself in his profession. Dr. Auger also received the medal of excellence from the Collège des médecins du Québec.
Area of research
- Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Research thematic
- In vitro biological applications of reconstructed tissue-engineering substitutes: physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, toxicology.
- In vivo preclinical and clinical applications of tissue substitutes in the form of tissue constructions and cell therapy.
- Reconstructed substitutes produced by tissue engineering for skin, small blood vessels, the cornea and bone tissue.
Research interests
- Reconstruction of human tissue, wound healing, stem cells, cellular and molecular biology.
- Skin, bone, vascular and corneal substitutes produced through tissue engineering.
- Transplantation.
Translational research
Although interested by the work done by LOEX, Dr. Auger’s scientific projects are specifically linked to tissue engineering for skin, corneal, vascular (small blood vessels), bone and heart valves. Dr. Auger works in a 55,000 sq. ft. infrastructure with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine cleanrooms, to continue to improve on the technology of reconstructed skin tissue. He is involved in a clinical trial using bilamellar skin substitutes to treat burn victims.
Micro blood vessel, lymphatics, and melanoma modelling
Dr. Auger’s discoveries on the formation of capillary blood networks allow us to now reconstruct tissues in the lab that are biologically more representative of native tissue. A discovery was recently the subject of two publications in Biomaterials and Nature Protocols, i.e. achieving lymphatic capillary networks in reconstructed tissue. Whether to improve our understanding of fundamental physiological mechanisms, or to work as a study model for complex pathologies such as melanoma, this discovery opens some new and original research options and puts the team in a positive position where they can use research tools that are more representative than the well-known in vitro models, while also being more simple, affordable, and ethically accepted than animal study models.
Bureau: R-105, LOEX / CMDGT
Québec, Québec
Canada G1J 1Z4
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Early basement membrane formation following the grafting of cultured epidermal sheets detached with thermolysin or Dispase.
Journal ArticleBurns, 21 (3), pp. 175-80, 1995, ISSN: 0305-4179.
Functional evaluation of anchored skin equivalent cultured in vitro: percutaneous absorption studies and lipid analysis.
Journal ArticlePharm Res, 12 (3), pp. 455-8, 1995, ISSN: 0724-8741.
Study of the tensile properties of living skin equivalents.
Journal ArticleBiomed Mater Eng, 5 (4), pp. 195-208, 1995, ISSN: 0959-2989.
Successful transplantation of chimeric allogeneic-autologous cultured epithelium.
Journal ArticleTransplant Proc, 26 (6), pp. 3361-2, 1994, ISSN: 0041-1345.
The skin immune system: CD36(+)-dendritic epidermal cell--a putative actor in posttransplant immunological events.
Journal ArticleTransplant Proc, 26 (6), pp. 3482, 1994, ISSN: 0041-1345.
CD36+-DENDRITIC EPIDERMAL CELLS: A PUTATIVE ACTOR IN THE CUTANEOUS IMMUNE SYSTEM.
Journal ArticleCell Transplant, 3 (6), pp. 529-536, 1994, ISSN: 0963-6897.
CD36(+)-dendritic epidermal cells: a putative actor in the cutaneous immune system.
Journal ArticleCell Transplant, 3 (6), pp. 529-36, 1994, ISSN: 0963-6897.
Human wound healing fibroblasts have greater contractile properties than dermal fibroblasts.
Journal ArticleJ Surg Res, 57 (2), pp. 268-73, 1994, ISSN: 0022-4804.
Visual analogue thermometer: a valid and useful instrument for measuring pain in burned patients.
Journal ArticleBurns, 20 (3), pp. 229-35, 1994, ISSN: 0305-4179.
Anchored skin equivalent cultured in vitro: a new tool for percutaneous absorption studies.
Journal ArticleIn Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim, 29A (11), pp. 834-7, 1993, ISSN: 1071-2690.
Active projects
- Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec - Université Laval, Subvention, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec - Université Laval, Centres de recherche affiliés, from 2017-01-01 to 2099-12-31
- Centre du génie tissulaire (CHU de Québec - Université Laval), Subvention, Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé, Réseaux thématiques de recherche, from 2019-04-01 to 2021-03-31
- Cultured epithelial corneal autografts for the treatment of canadians with limbal stem cell deficiency, Subvention, Secrétariat Inter-Conseils (Canada) (CRSH, CRSNG, IRSC), Réseau de centres d'excellence (RCE), from 2020-01-01 to 2022-01-31
- Self-Assembly Skin Substitutes (SASS) for the treatment of acute wounds of Canadian burn patients, Subvention, Secrétariat Inter-Conseils (Canada) (CRSH, CRSNG, IRSC), Réseau de centres d'excellence (RCE), from 2020-01-01 to 2022-01-31
Recently finished projects
- Centre de recherche en organogenèse expérimentale, Subvention, Institutionnel - BDR, BDR - Centres de recherche reconnus, from 2011-05-01 to 2020-12-31