Dr. Auersperg obtained an M.D. degree from the University of Washington in 1955. After a rotating internship, she joined the Cytology Department at the B.C. Cancer Institute in Vancouver B.C. where she established a research program aimed at the development of in vitro approaches to investigate growth and differentiation of cervical cancers. This work resulted in improved culture methods, information on early cytogenetic changes, microenvironment influences, and the development of the first cervical cancer lines with defined differentiation, which contributed to the discovery of HPV as the cause of cervical cancer.  In 1968, she obtained a Ph.D. in Zoology (Cell Biology) at the University of B.C. and remained there as Associate Professor. She moved to the Department of Anatomy in 1972, became full Professor in 1974 and Professor Emerita in 1994, when she continued work in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Since the 1980ties, her interests centered on the biology of ovarian surface epithelium. In 1984 she first reported the culture of this epithelium. Subsequent topics included the regulation of its growth and differentiation, responses to and production of bioactive factors , influence of BRCA1 mutations, signalling, and in vitro transformation to ovarian carcinoma cells. She has received many honours for this work, which include appointment as Terry Fox Cancer Research Scientist, Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Society for In Vitro Biology (USA), the UBC Faculty of Medicine and the UBC Alumni Association, Doctor of Science, (h.c.), from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK), and numerous named lectureships.
Her current interests center on serous borderline ovarian tumors, early detection markers, and relationships between tubal and ovarian carcinogenesis.