Arnaud Augert

Dr. Arnaud A. Augert hails from Institut Pasteur / Institut de Biologie de Lille in France, where he trained as a molecular and cellular biologist. His PhD work focused on the study of Cellular Senescence, a process intimately connected to a series of age-related conditions, including cancer. In his subsequent postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Dr. Augert devoted his efforts to the study of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an aggressive and devastating neuroendocrine tumor.

Notable highlights among his discoveries include the characterization of transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms underlying SCLC initiation and progression, and the identification of novel therapeutic strategies for this tumor type. Most strikingly, Dr. Augert and his colleagues uncovered the tumor suppressive networks of SCLC and a “tumor suppressive branch” of the MYC network. His work has been published in scientific journals such as Cancer Cell, Cancer Discovery, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Science Signaling and EMBO. He is an avid collaborator and a co-author on numerous studies published in journals such as Cell, Nature Communication and Genes & Development. Dr. Augert was awarded several PhD fellowships, a UALC/LCRF grant, the ATIP-AVENIR program and the Yale Cancer Center (YCC) K12 Calabresi Immuno-Oncology Training Program.

Mentorship is an area of great significance to Dr. Augert, mentoring trainees is a great source of pride. He has trained, supervised, and managed undergraduates, lab aids, research technicians and graduate students, many of whom have moved onto graduate programs, medical school, and roles with greater responsibility. As a newly appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology, Dr. Augert will focus his efforts on building a multidisciplinary research program that combines cell biology, human and mouse genetics and cutting-edge molecular biology to study SCLC biology and identify novel therapeutic approaches for this truly lethal form of lung cancer.