Dr. Lukas Unger, PhD
Department of General Surgery (Division of Visceral Surgery)
Position: Doctor-in-training
ORCID: 0000-0002-8423-2268
lukas.unger@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Colorectal Neoplasms; Colorectal Surgery
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
After finishing my PhD focussing on transplant immunology and metabolic changes in end-stage liver disease/portal hypertension, my interest has evolved into the field of cancer- and immunometabolism.
My current research focus aims to better understand metabolic rewiring in stem cells during cancer development and to investigate the impact of secreted oncometabolites on tumor-infiltrating immune cells.
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 colorectal cancer 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
- Knight, S.R. et al., 2021. Global variation in postoperative mortality and complications after cancer surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study in 82 countries. The Lancet, 397(10272), pp.387–397. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00001-5.
- 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.
- 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.
- Unger, L.W. et al., 2019. Guideline-conform statin use reduces overall mortality in patients with compensated liver disease. Scientific Reports, 9(1). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47943-6.