John Wagner, MD

Dr. Wagner is professor of Pediatrics, director of the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, scientific director of Clinical Research/Stem Cell Institute, and co-director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Wagner received his M.D. degree from Jefferson Medical College. He did his internship and residency in pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine, and his postdoctoral fellowship in hematology-oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is internationally recognized as an expert in stem cells and umbilical cord blood transplantation.

Dr. Wagner’s research has focused on the development of new molecular and cellular therapies for the treatment of life-threatening diseases for which conventional treatments are unsatisfactory. Although most of his work is in the setting of leukemia and bone marrow transplantation, new possibilities now exist allowing us to consider moving outside this area, such as in the area of diabetes and skin, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases. Projects underway in his laboratory include investigation of hematopoietic recovery and engraftment after umbilical cord blood transplantation, prevention of graft-versus-host disease after blood and marrow transplantation, novel conditioning regimens, disease-specific studies on Fanconi anemia, severe epidermolysis bullosa, and more.

Dr. Wagner serves on numerous national and international scientific advisory committees. He has made significant contributions as a scientist/clinician member of the CIRM’s Standards Working Group, as a committee member for the Institute of Medicine’s Establishing a National Cord Blood Stem Cell Banking Program, and as a member of the National Academies of Science Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee. He has reviewed proposals for several prestigious granting organizations including the Wellcome Trust, National Institute for Biological Sciences, Israel Science Foundation, the National Research Institute (Taiwan), and the Swiss Science Foundation.