Stefan Aigner

PhD

Project Scientist

 

Summary

Stefan is an RNA biochemist, neuroscientist and stem cell biologist.

Stefan received his PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In his thesis work in the lab of Tom Cech, he elucidated the role of p43, a protein subunit of telomerase from the ciliated model organism Euplotes. As a postdoctoral fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Stefan joined the lab of Fred Gage at the Salk Institute to study transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene regulation in embryonic and adult neurogenesis. After brief but highly productive venture into the pharma industry, which led Stefan to Roche in Basel (Switzerland) to establish genome-editing based models of neurodevelopmental disorders, Stefan joined the Yeo Lab as an Associate Project Scientist.

 

Education

Ph.D., Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2003

 

Contact

saigner@ucsd.edu

LinkedIn, NIH

Publications

From the Yeo Lab at UCSD:

  1. Cantú VJ, Salido RA, Huang S, Rahman G, Tsai R, Valentine H, Magallanes CG, Aigner S, Baer NA, Barber T, Belda-Ferre P, Betty M, Bryant M, Casas Maya M, Castro-Martínez A, Chacón M, Cheung W, Crescini ES, De Hoff P, Eisner E, Farmer S, Hakim A, Kohn L, Lastrella AL, Lawrence ES, Morgan SC, Ngo TT, Nouri A, Plascencia A, Ruiz CA, Sathe S, Seaver P, Shwartz T, Smoot EW, Ostrander RT, Valles T, Yeo GW, Laurent LC, Fielding-Miller R, Knight R. SARS-CoV-2 Distribution in Residential Housing Suggests Contact Deposition and Correlates with Rothia sp. mSystems, 2022.

  2. Karthikeyan S, Levy JI, De Hoff P, Humphrey G, Birmingham A, Jepsen K, Farmer S, Tubb HM, Valles T, Tribelhorn CE, Tsai R, Aigner S, Sathe S, Moshiri N, Henson B, Mark AM, Hakim A, Baer NA, Barber T, Belda-Ferre P, Chacón M, Cheung W, Cresini ES, Eisner ER, Lastrella AL, Lawrence ES, Marotz CA, Ngo TT, Ostrander T, Plascencia A, Salido RA, Seaver P, Smoot EW, McDonald D, Neuhard RM, Scioscia AL, Satterlund AM, Simmons EH, Abelman DB, Brenner D, Bruner JC, Buckley A, Ellison M, Gattas J, Gonias SL, Hale M, Hawkins F, Ikeda L, Jhaveri H, Johnson T, Kellen V, Kremer B, Matthews G, McLawhon RW, Ouillet P, Park D, Pradenas A, Reed S, Riggs L, Sanders A, Sollenberger B, Song A, White B, Winbush T, Aceves CM, Anderson C, Gangavarapu K, Hufbauer E, Kurzban E, Lee J, Matteson NL, Parker E, Perkins SA, Ramesh KS, Robles-Sikisaka R, Schwab MA, Spencer E, Wohl S, Nicholson L, Mchardy IH, Dimmock DP, Hobbs CA, Bakhtar O, Harding A, Mendoza A, Bolze A, Becker D, Cirulli ET, Isaksson M, Schiabor Barrett KM, Washington NL, Malone JD, Schafer AM, Gurfield N, Stous S, Fielding-Miller R, Garfein RS, Gaines T, Anderson C, Martin NK, Schooley R, Austin B, MacCannell DR, Kingsmore SF, Lee W, Shah S, McDonald E, Yu AT, Zeller M, Fisch KM, Longhurst C, Maysent P, Pride D, Khosla PK, Laurent LC, Yeo GW, Andersen KG, Knight R.Wastewater sequencing uncovers early, cryptic SARS-CoV-2 variant transmission. medRxiv, 2022. [NON PEER-REVIEWED PREPRINT]

  3. Krivdova G, Voisin V, Schoof EM, Marhon SA, Murison A, McLeod JL, Gabra MM, Zeng AGX, Aigner S, Yee BA, Shishkin AA, Van Nostrand EL, Hermans KG, Trotman-Grant AC, Mbong N, Kennedy JA, Gan OI, Wagenblast E, De Carvalho DD, Salmena L, Minden MD, Bader GD, Yeo GW, Dick JE, Lechman ER. Identification of the global miR-130a targetome reveals a role for TBL1XR1 in hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal and t(8;21) AML. Cell Reports, 2022.

  4. Salido RA, Cantú VJ, Clark AE, Leibel SL, Foroughishafiei A, Saha A, Hakim A, Nouri A, Lastrella AL, Castro-Martínez A, Plascencia A, Kapadia BK, Xia B, Ruiz CA, Marotz CA, Maunder D, Lawrence ES, Smoot EW, Eisner E, Crescini ES, Kohn L, Franco Vargas L, Chacón M, Betty M, Machnicki M, Wu MY, Baer NA, Belda-Ferre P, De Hoff P, Seaver P, Ostrander RT, Tsai R, Sathe S, Aigner S, Morgan SC, Ngo TT, Barber T, Cheung W, Carlin AF, Yeo GW, Laurent LC, Fielding-Miller R, Knight R.. Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Persistence across Indoor Surface Materials Reveals Best Practices for Environmental Monitoring Programs. mSystems, 2021.

  5. Zeller M, Gangavarapu K, Anderson C, Smither AR, Vanchiere JA, Rose R, Snyder DJ, Dudas G, Watts A, Matteson NL, Robles-Sikisaka R, Marshall M, Feehan AK, Sabino-Santos G Jr, Bell-Kareem AR, Hughes LD, Alkuzweny M, Snarski P, Garcia-Diaz J, Scott RS, Melnik LI, Klitting R, McGraw M, Belda-Ferre P, DeHoff P, Sathe S, Marotz C, Grubaugh ND, Nolan DJ, Drouin AC, Genemaras KJ, Chao K, Topol S, Spencer E, Nicholson L, Aigner S, Yeo GW, Farnaes L, Hobbs CA, Laurent LC, Knight R, Hodcroft EB, Khan K, Fusco DN, Cooper VS, Lemey P, Gardner L, Lamers SL, Kamil JP, Garry RF, Suchard MA, Andersen KG.. Emergence of an early SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the United States. Cell, 2021.

  6. Keehner J, Horton LE, Binkin NJ, Laurent LC; SEARCH Alliance (Aigner S et al), Pride D, Longhurst CA, Abeles SR, Torriani FJ. Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Highly Vaccinated Health System Workforce. New England Journal of Medicine, 2021.

  7. Okholm TLH, Sathe S, Park SS, Kamstrup AB, Rasmussen AM, Shankar A, Chua ZM, Fristrup N, Nielsen MM, Vang S, Dyrskjor L, Aigner S, Damgaard CK, Yeo GW, Pedersen JS. Transcriptome-wide profiles of circular RNA and RNA-binding protein interactions review effects on circular RNA biogenesis and cancer pathway expression. Genome Medicine, 2020.

  8. Donsbach P, Yee BA, Sanchez-Hevia D, Berenguer J, Aigner S, Yeo GW, Klostermeier D. The Thermus thermophilus DEAD-box protein Hera is a general RNA binding protein and plays a key role in tRNA metabolism. RNA, 2020.

  9. Lasman L, Krupalnik V, Viukov S, Mor N, Aguilera-Castrejon A, Schneir D, Bayerl J, Mizrahi O, Peles S, Tawil S, Sathe S, Nachshon A, Shani T, Zerbib M, Kilimnik I, Aigner S, Shankar A, Mueller JR, Schwartz S, Stern-Ginossar N, Yeo GW, Geula S, Novershtern N, Hanna JH. Context-dependent functional compensation between Ythdf m6a reader proteins. Genes & Dev, 2020.

  10. Batra R, Nelles DA, Roth DM, Krach F, Nutter CA, Tadokoro T, Thomas JD, Sznajder L, Blue SM, Gutierrez H, Liu P, Aigner S, Platoshyn O, Miyanohara A, Marsala M, Swanson MS, Yeo GW. The sustained expression of Cas9 targeting toxic RNAs reverses disease phenotypes in mouse models of myotonic dystrophy type 1. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2020.

  11. Tavares CDJ, Aigner S, Sharabi K, Sathe S, Mutli B, Yeo GW, Puigserver P. Transcriptome-wide analysis of PGC-1a-binding RNAs identifies genes linked to glucagon metabolic action. PNAS, 2020 (*co-first authors).

  12. Coyne A, Zaepfel B, Hayes L, Fitchman B, Salzberg Y, Luo EC, Bowen K, Trost H, Aigner S, Rigo F, Yeo GW, Harel A, Svendsen CN, Sareen D, Rothstein JD. G4C2 Repeat RNA Initiates a POM121-Mediated Reduction in Specific Nucleoporins in C9orf72 ALS/FTD. Neuron, 2020.

  13. Luo EC, Nathanson JL, Tan FE, Schwartz JL, Schmok JC, Shankar A, Markmiller S, Yee BA, Sathe S, Pratt GA, Scaletta DB, Ha Y, Hill DE, Aigner S, Yeo GW. Large-scale tethered function assays identify factors that regulate mRNA stability and translation. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2020.

  14. Van Nostrand EL, Freese P, Pratt GA, Wang X, Wei X, Xiao R, Blue SM, Chen J-Y, Cody NAL, Dominguez D, Olson S, Sundararaman B, Zhan L, Bazile C, Bouvrette LPB, Bergalet J, Duff MO, Garcia KE, Gelboin-Burkhart C, Hochman M, Lambert NJ, Li H, Nguyen TB, Palden T, Rabano I, Sathe S, Stanton R, Su A, Wang R, Yee BA, Zhou B, Louie AL, Aigner S, Fu X-D, Lécuyer E, Burge CB, Graveley BR, Yeo GW. A large-scale binding and functional map of human RNA-binding proteins. Nature, 2020.

  15. Di Stefano B, Luo EC, Haggerty C, Aigner S, Charlton J, Brumbaugh J, Ji F, Rabano Jiménez I, Clowers KJ, Huebner AJ, Clement K, Lipchina I, de Kort MAC,Anselmo A, Pulice J, Gerli MFM, Gu H, Gygi SP, Sadreyev RI, Meissner A, Yeo GW, Hochedlinger K. The RNA Helicase DDX6 Controls Cellular Plasticity by Modulating P-Body Homeostasis. Cell Stem Cell, 2019.

  16. Batra R, Nelles DA, Pirie E, Blue SM, Marina RJ, Wang H, Chaim IA, Thomas JD, Zhang N, Nguyen V, Aigner S, Markmiller S, Xia G, Corbett KD, Swanson MS, Yeo GW. Elimination of Toxic Microsatellite Repeat Expansion RNA by RNA-Targeting Cas9. Cell, 2017.

  17. Kakaradov B, Arsenio J, Widjaja CE, He Z, Aigner S, Metz PJ, Yu B, Wehrens EJ,Lopez J, Kim SH, Zuniga EI, Goldrath AW, Chang JT, Yeo GW. Early transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of CD8(+) T cell differentiation revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing. Nature Immunology, 2017.

  18. Batra R, Stark TJ, Clark E, Belzile JP, Wheeler EC, Yee BA, Huang H, Gelboin-Burkhart C, Huelga SC, Aigner S, Roberts BT, Bos TJ, Sathe S, Donohue JP, Rigo F, Ares M Jr, Spector DH, Yeo GW. RNA-binding protein CPEB1 remodels host and viral RNA landscapes. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2016.

  19. Conway AE, Van Nostrand EL, Pratt GA, Aigner S, Wilbert ML, Sundararaman B, Freese P, Lambert NJ, Sathe S, Liang TY, Essex A, Landais S, Burge CB, Jones DL, Yeo GW. Enhanced CLIP Uncovers IMP Protein-RNA Targets in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Important for Cell Adhesion and Survival. Cell Reports, 2016.

  20. Bos TJ, Nussbacher JK, Aigner S, Yeo GW. Tethered Function Assays as Tools to Elucidate the Molecular Roles of RNA-Binding Proteins. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2016. [BOOK CHAPTER]

  21. Nelles DA, Fang MY, Aigner S, Yeo GW. Applications of Cas9 as an RNA-programmed RNA-binding protein. BioEssays, 2015. [INVITED REVIEW ARTICLE]

From my postdoctoral work at Roche:

  1. Kathuria A, Nowosiad P, Jagasia R, Aigner S, Taylor RD, Andreae LC, Gatford NJF, Lucchesi W, Srivastava DP, Price J. Stem cell-derived neurons from autistic individuals with SHANK3 mutation show morphogenetic abnormalities during early development. Molecular Psychiatry, 2017.

  2. Gündner AL, Meyer CA, Aigner S, Christensen K, Patsch C, Jagasia R, Baumann K, Burcin M. Generation of a homozygous GBA deletion human embryonic stem cell line. Stem Cell Research, 2017.

  3. Lugert S, Kremer T, Jagasia R, Herrmann A, Aigner S, Giachino C, Mendez-David I, Gardier AM, Carralot JP, Meistermann H, Augustin A, Saxe MD, Lamerz J, Duran-Pacheco G, Ducret A, Taylor V, David DJ, Czech C. Glypican-2 levels incerebrospinal fluid predict the status of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Scientific Reports, 2017.

  4. Grabole N, Zhang JD, Aigner S, Ruderisch N, Costa V, Weber FC, Theron M, Berntenis N, Spleiss O, Ebeling M, Yeo GW, Jagasia R, Kiialainen A. Genomic analysis of the molecular neuropathology of tuberous sclerosis using a human stem cell model. Genome Medicine, 2016.

  5. Costa V * , Aigner S * , Vukcevic M *, Sauter E, Behr K, Ebeling M, Dunkley T, Friedlein A, Zoffmann S, Meyer CA, Knoflach F, Lugert S, Patsch C, Fjeldskaar F, Chicha-Gaudimier L, Kiialainen A, Piraino P, Bedoucha M, Graf M, Jessberger S, Ghosh A, Bischofberger J, Jagasia R. mTORC1 Inhibition Corrects Neurodevelopmental and Synaptic Alterations in a Human Stem Cell Model of Tuberous Sclerosis. Cell Reports, 2016 (* co-first authors).

  6. Dunkley T, Costa V, Friedlein A, Lugert S, Aigner S, Ebeling M, Miller MT, Patsch C, Piraino P, Cutler P, Jagasia R. Characterization of a human pluripotent stem cell-derived model of neuronal development using multiplexed targeted proteomics. Proteomics - Clinical Applications, 2015.

  7. Havlicek S, Kohl Z, Mishra HK, Prots I, Eberhardt E, Denguir N, Wend H, Plötz S, Boyer L, Marchetto MC, Aigner S, Sticht H, Groemer TW, Hehr U, Lampert A, Schlötzer-Schrehardt U, Winkler J, Gage FH, Winner B. Gene dosage-dependent rescue of HSP neurite defects in SPG4 patients’ neurons. Human Molecular Genetics, 2014.

  8. Aigner S, Heckel T, Zhang JD, Andreae LC, Jagasia R. Human pluripotent stem cell models of autism spectrum disorder: emerging frontiers, opportunities, and challenges towards neuronal networks in a dish. Psychopharmacology, 2014. [INVITED REVIEW ARTICLE]

  9. Vorstman JA, Spooren W, Persico AM, Collier DA, Aigner S, Jagasia R, Glennon JC, Buitelaar JK. Using genetic findings in autism for the development of new pharmaceutical compounds. Psychopharmacology, 2014. [INVITED REVIEW ARTICLE]

  10. Urich E, Patsch C, Aigner S, Graf M, Iacone R, Freskgård PO. Multicellular self-assembled spheroidal model of the blood brain barrier. Scientific Reports, 2013.

From my postdoctoral work at Salk:

  1. Bracko O, Singer T, Aigner S, Knobloch M, Winner B, Ray J, Clemenson GD Jr, Suh H, Couillard-Despres S, Aigner L, Gage FH, Jessberger S. Gene expression profiling of neural stem cells and their neuronal progeny reveals IGF2 as a regulator of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Journal of Neuroscience, 2012.

  2. Winner B, Jappelli R, Maji SK, Desplats PA, Boyer L, Aigner S, Hetzer C, Loher T, Vilar M, Campioni S, Tzitzilonis C, Soragni A, Jessberger S, Mira H, Consiglio A, Pham E, Masliah E, Gage FH, Riek R. In vivo demonstration that alpha-synuclein oligomers are toxic. PNAS, 2011.

  3. Lu YC, Smielewska M, Palakodeti D, Lovci MT, Aigner S, Yeo GW, Graveley BR. Deep sequencing identifies new and regulated microRNAs in Schmidtea mediterranea. RNA, 2009.

  4. Thuret S, Toni N, Aigner S, Yeo GW, Gage FH. Hippocampus-dependent learning is associated with adult neurogenesis in MRL/MpJ mice. Hippocampus, 2009.

  5. Jessberger S, Aigner S, Clemenson GD Jr, Toni N, Lie DC, Karalay O, Overall R, Kempermann G, Gage FH. Cdk5 regulates accurate maturation of newborn granule cells in the adult hippocampus. PLoS Biology, 2008.

  6. Yeo GW, Coufal N, Aigner S, Winner B, Scolnick JA, Marchetto MC, Muotri AR, Carson C, Gage FH. Multiple layers of molecular controls modulate self-renewal and neuronal lineage specification of embryonic stem cells. Human Molecular Genetics, 2008. [INVITED REVIEW ARTICLE]

  7. Aigner S, Denli AM, Gage FH. A novel model for an older remodeler: the BAF swap in neurogenesis. Neuron, 2007.

  8. Carson CT, Aigner S, Gage FH. Stem cells: the good, bad and barely in control. Nature. Medicine, 2006. [INVITED PREVIEW ARTICLE]

  9. Aigner S, Gage FH. A small gem with great powers: geminin keeps neural progenitors thriving. Developmental Cell, 2005. [INVITED PREVIEW ARTICLE]

From my PhD work at the University of Colorado:

  1. Aigner S, Cech TR. The Euplotes telomerase subunit p43 stimulates enzymatic activity and processivity in vitro. RNA, 2004.

  2. Aigner S, Postberg J, Lipps HJ, Cech TR. The Euplotes La motif protein p43 has properties of a telomerase-specific subunit. Biochemistry, 2003.

  3. Aigner S, Lingner J, Goodrich KJ, Grosshans CA, Shevchenko A, Mann M, Cech TR. Euplotes telomerase contains an La motif protein produced by apparent translational frameshifting. EMBO Journal, 2000.

  4. Seiwert SD, Stines Nahreini T, Aigner S, Ahn NG, Uhlenbeck OC. RNA aptamers as pathway-specific MAP kinase inhibitors. Chemical Biology, 2000.

  5. Jabri E, Aigner S, Cech TR. Kinetic and secondary structure analysis of Naegleria andersoni GIR1, a group I ribozyme whose putative biological function is site-specific hydrolysis. Biochemistry, 1997.