John Wagner, M.D.

Director, Division of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation
Director, Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics
Professor
Mayo Mail Code 366
420 Delaware St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 626-2961
Fax: (612) 626-4074
wagne002@umn.edu
Preferred method of contact: Phone

Dr. Wagner is a professor of pediatrics, Director of the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Co-Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He currently holds two endowed chairs – Hageboeck/Children’s Cancer Research Fund Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research, and the University of Minnesota McKnight Presidential Chair in Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Wagner is internationally recognized as an expert in the field of stem cells and umbilical cord blood transplantation.

He received his M.D. degree at Jefferson Medical College in 1981, completed his internship and residency in Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine in 1984 and postdoctoral fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1987, where he remained until joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1991. He is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology.

Dr. Wagner’s research has focused on the development of new treatment approaches for life-threatening diseases for which conventional treatments are unsatisfactory using molecular and cellular therapies. While historically, 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 the area of skin diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurological diseases.

He has authored 237 research papers and book chapters, and is a member of numerous professional societies.

Honors and Awards

• 1981 Dean Marie Baines Award for Excellence in Pediatrics, Jefferson Medical College
• 1981 Magna Cum Laude, Jefferson Medical College
• 1990-1993 Recipient, American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Career Development Award
• 2000 Elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation
• 2001 Tenth Clinical Scholar Award, University of Minnesota Medical School and Fairview-University Medical Center
• 2002 Recognition of Excellence, Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota
• 2002 Pioneer Award for Therapeutic Advancement Fanconi Anemia Research Fund
• 2003 1st Recipient of the Brady Kohn Foundation Award
• 2004 Invited speaker on the Clinical Application of Stem Cells at the United Nations
• 2005 Testified before theUnited States Senate on the effectiveness of umbilical cord blood prior to passage of the Stem Cell Act of 2005
• 2006 Elected to Association of American Physicians
• 2009-2010 Best Doctors in America

Research Interests

1. Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation in Children and Adults
   • Ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells
   • Double unit transplantation
   • Non-myeloablative preparative therapies
   • Co-infusion of T-regulatory cells
   • Graft vs. Leukemia Effector Therapies
2. Fanconi anemia
   • Novel preparative therapies
   • Gene therapy - multipotent adult stem cell
   • Phenotype-genotype correlations (collaboration with Rockefeller University)
   • Pathophysiology
3. Multipotent Adult Stem Cells (MAPC) in tissue repair
   • Translational development/large scale manufacture of MAPC
   • Evaluation of MAPC therapeutic potential in congenital and acquired disorders

Selected Recent Publications

Porter SB, Liu B, Rogosheske J, Levine BL, June CH, Kohl VK, Wagner JE, Miller JS, Blazar BR.  Suppressor Function of Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Derived CD4⁺CD25⁺ T-Regulatory (Treg) Cells Exposed to Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD) Drugs.  Transplantation.  In Press (2006).

Eapen M, Rubinstein P, Zhang MJ, Camitta B, Stevens C, Cairo MS, Davies SM, Doyle JJ, Kurtzberg J, Pulsipher MA, Ortega JJ, Scaradavou A, Horowitz MM, Wagner JE.  Comparable Long-Term Survival After Unrelated and HLA-Matched Sibling Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants for Acute Leukemia in Children Less Then 18 Months. J. Clin Oncology. 24:145-151 (2006).

Wagner JE, Thompson JS, Carter SL, Kernan NA.  Effect of Graft-versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis on 3-Year Disease Free Survival in Recipients of Unrelated Donor Bone Marrow Transplantation: Results of a Multi-Center, Randomized Phase II-III Trial.  Lancet. 366:733-41 (2005).

Barker J, Hough RE, van Burik J, DeFor T, MacMillan ML, O’Brien MR, Wagner JE.  Serious Infections After Unrelated Donor Transplantation in 136 Children: Impact of Stem Cell Source.  Biol  Blood Marrow Tranplant. 11:362-70 (2005).

Miller JS, Soignier Y, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, McNearney S, Yun G, Fautsch SK, McKenna D, Le C, Defor TE, Burns LJ, Orchard PJ, Blazar BR, Wagner JE, Slungaard A, Weisdorf DJ, Okazaki IJ, McGlave PB.  Successful Adoptive Transfer and InVivo Expansion of Human Haploidentical NK Cells in Cancer Patients.  Blood. 105:3051-7 (2005).

Wagner JE, Kahn JP, Wolf SM, Lipton FM.  Preimplantation Testing to Produce an HLA Matched Donor Infant.  JAMA 292:803-804 (2004).

Eapen M, Horowitz MM, Klein JP, Champlin RE, Loberiza FR, Ringden O, Wagner JE.  Higher Mortality after Allogeneic Peripheral-Blood Transplantation Compared With Bone Marrow in Children and Adolescents: The Histocompatibility and Alternative Stem Cell Source Working Committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry.  J Clin Oncol. 22:4872-80 (2004).

Barker JN, Weisdorf DJ, DeFor TE, Blazar, McGlave PB, Miller JS, Verfaillie CM, Wagner JE.   Transplantation of Two-Partially HLA-Matched Umbilical Cord Blood Units To Enhance Engraftment in Adult with Hematologic Malignancy.   Blood 105:1343-7 (2004).

Wagner JE, Verfaillie CM.  Ex vivo Expansion of Umbilical Cord Blood Hemopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells.  Exp Hematol 32:412-413 (2004).

Laughlin MJ, M Eapen, Rubinstein P, Wagner JE, Zhang MJ, Champlin RE, Stevens CE, Barker JN, Gale RP, Lazarus HM, Marks DI, van Rood JJ, Scaravadou A, Horowtiz MM.  Outcomes After Transplantation of Cord Blood or Bone Marrow from Unrelated Donors in Adults with Leukemia.  New Engl J Med.  22:2265-75 (2004).

Wagner JE, Tolar J, Levran O, Scholl T, Deffenbaugh A, Satagopan J, Ben-Porat L, Mah K, Batish S, Kutler D, MacMillan M, Hanenberg H, Auerbach A. Germline Mutation in BRCA2: Shared Genetic Susceptibility to Breast Cancer, Early Onset Leukemia and Fanconi Anemia. Blood. 103:3226-9 (2004).

Grewal SS, MacMillan ML, Kahn JP, Ramsay NKC, Wagner JE. Successful Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Fanconi Anemia from an Unaffected HLA Genotypically- Identical Sibling Selected Using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. Blood. 103:1147-1151 (2004).

Barker JN, Wagner JE. Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation for the Treatment of Cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer 3:526-32 (2003).

Wolf SJ, Kahn JP, Wagner, JE. Using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis to Create Stem Cell Donor: Issues, Guidelines & Limits. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. 31:327-339 (2003).

Barker JN, Weisdorf DJ, DeFor TE, Blazar BR, Miller JS, Wagner JE. Rapid and Complete Donor Chimerism in Adult Recipients of Unrelated Donor Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation after Reduced Intensity Conditioning. Blood. 102:1915-9 (2003).

Wagner JE, Barker JN, DeFor T, Baker KS, Blazar BR, Eide C, Goldman A, Kersey J, Krivit W, MacMillan M, Orchard P, Peters C, Weisdorf DJ, Ramsay NKC, Davies SM. Transplantation of Unrelated Donor Umbilical Cord Blood in 102 Patients with Malignant and Non-Malignant Diseases: Influence of CD34 Cell Dose and HLA Disparity on Treatment-Related Mortality and Survival. Blood advanced on line publication. Blood. 100:1611-8 (2002).

Grewal SS, Barker JN, Davies SM, and Wagner JE. Unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation: marrow or umbilical cord blood? Blood. 101:4233-44 (2003).

Barker JN, Weisdorf DJ, Wagner JE. Creation of a double chimera after the transplantation of umbilical-cord blood from two partially matched unrelated donors. N Engl J Med. 344:1870-1871 (2001).

Gregory JJ, Wagner JE, Verlander PC, Levran O, Batish SD, Eide CR, Steffenhagen A, Hirsch B, Auerbach AD. Somatic Mosaicism in Fanconi Anemia: Evidence of Genotypic Reversion in Lymphohematopoietic Stem Cells. Proc Nat Acad Sci. 98:2532-2537 (2001).

Barker JN, Davies SM, DeFor T, Ramsay NKC, Weisdorf DJ, Wagner JE. Survival After Transplantation of Unrelated Donor Umbilical Cord Blood is Comparable to that of Human Leukocyte Antigen-Matched Unrelated Donor Bone Marrow: Results of a Matched-Pair Analysis. Blood. 97:2957-2961 (2001).