The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also called UT Health San Antonio, is a leading academic health center with a mission to make lives better through excellence in advanced academics, life-saving research and comprehensive clinical care including health, dental and cancer services.
Dr. Aune was born in Eastern Washington State and grew up on a wheat farm. At age 16 he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and was successfully cured of his disease after undergoing one year of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. His cancer experience led Dr. Aune down a path to becoming a pediatric oncologist and physician scientist.
He attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with separate degrees in chemistry and biology. From there he moved to Texas and pursued training in both medicine and basic science.
In 2001, he moved to the Washington D.C. area with his wife and continued graduate work at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the supervision of Yves Pommier, MD, PhD, director of the Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology. Throughout the next four years, Dr. Aune continued educational activities at the University of Texas-Houston and MD Anderson Cancer Center, while conducting his research at NCI. In 2005, he graduated from the University of Texas-Houston with an MD and PhD in the field of tumor biology and experimental therapeutics. The focus of Dr. Aunes PhD dissertation was the molecular mechanism of cytotoxicity of the novel DNA minor groove alkylator, Ecteinascidin 743. Dr. Aune completed his pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD in 2008 and subspecialty training in hematology-oncology in 2010 here at UT Health San Antonio.
During the beginning months of his hematology-oncology fellowship, Dr. Aune underwent open heart surgery to replace his aortic valve and bypass three blocked coronary arteries the direct result of chemotherapy and radiation he had received 20 years prior. Similar to his teenage battle with cancer, this personal struggle guided his academic path towards developing a laboratory program investigating the basic science of pediatric cancer survivorship. He is the first graduate of the Pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship supported generously by Mr. Bill Greehey and Greehey CCRI.
Dr. Aune is board certified in both general pediatrics and hematology-oncology and maintains membership and actively participates in numerous national organizations devoted to childhood cancer research and cancer survivorship.
He is married to Christine, a major and neonatologist in the United States Army. They are blessed with two sets of twins, ages eight and three.
Publications
Lindsey, M. L., Lange, R. A., Parsons, H., Andrews, T. & Aune, G. J. The tell-tale heart: molecular and cellular responses to childhood anthracycline exposure. Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 307, H1379-89 (2014). PMID: 25217655; PMCID: PMC4233297
Pan, H., Qin, K., Guo, Z., Ma, Y., April, C., Gao, X., Andrews, T. G., Bokov, A., Zhang, J., Chen, Y., Weintraub, S. T., Fan, J. B., Wang, D., Hu, Y., Aune, G. J., Lindsey, M. L. & Li, R. Negative elongation factor controls energy homeostasis in cardiomyocytes. Cell. Rep. 7, 79-85 (2014). PMID: 24656816; PMCID: PMC4277258
"With a more basic understanding of how chemotherapy damages normal tissues such as the heart, we can begin to develop new medicines that protect vulnerable organs from the damage that results in late health effects in survivors."
- Dr. Greg Aune, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
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