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.
LOEX / CMDGT
R-105
Québec, Québec
Canada G1J 1Z4
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Speeding up the production of clinical-grade skin substitutes using off-the-shelf decellularized self-assembled dermal matrices
Journal ArticleActa Biomater, 167 , 2023.
Peptide grafting on intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prostheses to promote sealing with skin cells: Potential to limit infections
Journal ArticleJ Biomed Mater Res A, 111 (5), 2023.
The Self-Assembled Skin Substitute History: Successes, Challenges, and Current Treatment Indications
Journal ArticleJ Burn Care Res, 44 (Suppl_1), 2023.
Cultured Autologous Corneal Epithelia for the Treatment of Unilateral Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency: A Case Series of 15 Patients
Journal ArticleBiomedicines, 10 (8), 2022.
Preclinical Evaluation of BMP-9-Treated Human Bone-like Substitutes for Alveolar Ridge Preservation following Tooth Extraction
Journal ArticleInt J Mol Sci, 23 (6), 2022.
Moyamoya Disease Susceptibility Gene RNF213 Regulates Endothelial Barrier Function
Journal ArticleStroke, 53 (4), 2022.
In Vitro Prevascularization of Self-Assembled Human Bone-Like Tissues and Preclinical Assessment Using a Rat Calvarial Bone Defect Model
Journal ArticleMaterials (Basel), 14 (8), 2021.
Biofabrication and preclinical evaluation of a large-sized human self-assembled skin substitute
Journal ArticleBiomed Mater, 16 (2), 2021.
Fibronectin grafting to enhance skin sealing around transcutaneous titanium implant
Journal ArticleJ Biomed Mater Res A, 109 (11), 2021.
The use of tissue-engineered skin to demonstrate the negative effect of CXCL5 on epidermal ultraviolet radiation-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer repair efficiency
Journal ArticleBr J Dermatol, 184 (1), 2021.
Recently finished projects
- Centre du génie tissulaire (CHU de Québec - Université Laval), from 2019-04-01 to 2023-03-31
- Cultured epithelial corneal autografts for the treatment of canadians with limbal stem cell deficiency, from 2020-01-01 to 2023-01-31
- Self-Assembly Skin Substitutes (SASS) for the treatment of acute wounds of Canadian burn patients, from 2020-01-01 to 2023-01-31
- Soutien aux projets de recherche en génie tissulaire, from 2014-04-01 to 2021-03-31