Department of General Surgery (Division of Visceral Surgery)
Position: Consultant
ORCID: 0000-0002-8423-2268
lukas.unger@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Colorectal Neoplasms; Colorectal Surgery; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Research group(s)
- Surgical Research Laboratories
Head: Michael Bergmann
Research Area: The task of the laboratory is to combine molecular/cellular biology and the needs posed by surgical patients. Thus, the laboratory acts at the interface between clinical medicine and basic research, promoting translational medical science.
Members:
Research interests
Our research focus aims to better understand chronic intestinal inflammation, and how to prevent recurring inflammation following abdominal operations.
To investigate causes and consequences of postoperative disease recurrence in inflammatory bowel diseases, my research group uses large clinical databases, as well as clinically obtained samples to better understand triggers resulting in a pathological immune response within the first months after surgery.
Techniques, methods & infrastructure
Basic research techniques/models:
- Standard molecular biology techniques
- CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing
- Murine in vivo models
- Intestinal organoids
- Confocal microscopy
Clinical research:
- Establishment, maintenance and analysis of large clinical prospective and retrospective databases
- Establishment and maintenance of a Crohn’s disease and colorectal cancer tissue biobank
Grants
- Impact of mesenteric lymph drainage in antigen presentation in Crohn’s disease (2020)
Source of Funding: City of Vienna, inflammatory bowel disease
Principal Investigator - The role of FAMIN in cancer development (2019)
Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Schroedinger Fellowship
Principal Investigator
Selected publications
- Cader, M.Z. et al. (2020) ‘FAMIN Is a Multifunctional Purine Enzyme Enabling the Purine Nucleotide Cycle’, Cell, 180(2), pp. 278-295.e23. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.017.
- Duan, J. et al. (2023) ‘Endoplasmic reticulum stress in the intestinal epithelium initiates purine metabolite synthesis and promotes Th17 cell differentiation in the gut’, Immunity, 56(5), pp. 1115-1131.e9. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2023.02.018.
- Saveljeva, S. et al. (2022) ‘A purine metabolic checkpoint that prevents autoimmunity and autoinflammation’, Cell Metabolism, 34(1), pp. 106-124.e10. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2021.12.009.
- Unger, L.W. et al. (2019) ‘Mesenteric granulomas independently predict long‐term risk of surgical recurrence in Crohn’s disease’, Colorectal Disease, 22(2), pp. 170–177. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/codi.14814.
- Unger, L.W. et al. (2018) ‘Effect of pathologist’s dedication on lymph node detection rate and postoperative survival in colorectal cancer’, Colorectal Disease, 20(7), pp. O173–O180. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/codi.14241.