Program Co-leader: Transplant Biology and Therapy Research Program
Director, Department of Pediatrics, Hematology-Oncology and Blood Marrow Transplantation
Director, Department of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics
Co-Director, Center for Translational Medicine
Professor, Department of Pediatrics

wagne002@umn.edu
612-626-2961 — office
Preferred method of contact: phone

Dr. Wagner's clinical profile
(University of Minnesota Physicians website)

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.

Research Interests
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. Specific 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; development of novel conditioning regimens; disease-specific studies on Fanconi anemia and severe epidermolysis bullosa; and development of novel cellular therapies involving cardiac stem cells, regulatory T cells, dendritic cell-based vaccines for brain tumors, NK cells for anticancer therapy, and tissue repair.

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

Read about Dr. Wagner's experience and thoughts on umbilical cord blood transplantation.

Selected Publications

Hippen KL, Merkel SC, Schirm DK, Sieben CM, Sumstad D, Kadidlo DM, McKenna DH, Bromberg JS, Levine BL, Riley JL, June CH, Scheinberg P, Douek DC, Miller JS, Wagner JE, Blazar BR. Massive ex vivo expansion of human natural regulatory T cells (Tregs) with minimal loss of in vivo functional activity.  Sci Transl Med 2011; 18:83ra41.

Brunstein CG, Miller JS, Cao Q, McKenna DH, Hipen KL, Curtsinger J, Defor T, Levine BL, June CH, Rubenstein P, McGlave PB, Blazar BR, Wagner JE. Infusion of ex vivo expanded T regulatory cells in adults transplanted with umbilical cord blood: safety profile and detection kinetics. Blood 2011;117:1061-1070.

Becker PS, Taylor JA, Trobridge GD, Zhao X, Beard BC, Chien S, Adair J, Kohn DB, Wagner JE, Shimamura A, Kiem HP. Preclinical correction of human Fanconi anemia complementation group A bone marrow cells using a safety-modified lentiviral vector. Gene Ther 2010;17:1244-1252.

Eapen M, , Rocha V, Guillermo S, Andromachi S, Zhang MJ, Arcese W, Sirvent A, Champlin RE, Chao N, Gee AP, Isola L, Laughling MJ, Marks DI, Nabhan S, Ruggeri A, Soiffer R, Horowitz MM, Gluckman E, Wagner JE. Effect of graft source on unrelated donor heamatopoietic stem-cell transplantation in adults with acute leukemia: a retrospective analysis. Lancet Oncol 2010; 11:653-660.

Brunstein CG, Gutman JA, Weisdorf DJ, Woolfrey AE, DeFor TE, Gooley TA, Verneris MR, Appelbaum FR, Wagner JE, Delaney C. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for hematological malignancy: relative risks and benefits of double cord blood. Blood 2010;116:4693-4699.

Wagner JE, Ishida-Yamamoto A, McGrath JA, Hordinsky M, Keane D, Christiano AM, Blazar BR, Tolar J. Bone marrow transplantation for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. New Engl J Med 2010; 363:629-639.

Xue X, Huang X, Nodland SE, Mates L, Ma L, Izsvak Z, Ivics Z, Lebien TW, McOIvor RS, Wagner JE, Zhou X. Stable gene transfer and sxpression in cord blood-derived CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells by a hyperactive sleeping beauty transposon system. Blood 2009;114:1319-1330.

Verneris MR, Brunstein CG, Barker J, MacMillan ML, Defor T, McKenna DH, Burke MJ, Blazar BR, Miller JS, McGlave PB, Weisdorf DJ, Wagner JE. Relapse risk after umbilical cord blood transplantation; enhanced graft versus leukemia effect in recipients of two units. Blood 2009;114:4293-4299.

McCullough J, McKenna D, Kadidlo D, Maurer D, Noreen HJ, French K, Brunstein C, Wagner JE. Mislabeled units of umbilical cord blood detected by a quality assurance program at the transplant center. Blood 2009;114:1684-1688.

Brunstein CG, Wagner JE, Weisdorf DJ, Cooley , Noreen H, Barker JN, Defor T, Verneris MR, Blazar BR, Miller JS. Negative effect of KIR alloreactivity in recipients of umbilical cord blood transplant depends on transplantation conditioning intensity. Blood 2009;113:5628-5634.

MacMillan ML, Weisdorf DJ, Brunstein CG, Cao Q, Defor TE, Verneris MR, Blazar BR, Wagner JE. Acute graft-verusu-host disease after unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation: analysis of risk factors. Blood 2009;113:2410-2415.

Rodrigues CA, Sanz G, Brunstein C, San J, Wagner JE, Renaud M, de Lima M, Cairo M, Furst S, Rio B, Dalley D, Carreras E, Harousseau J.l., Mohty M, Taveira D, Sureda A, Dreger P, Gluckman E, Rocha V. Analysis of risk factors for Detection after unrelated cord blood transplantation in adults with lymphoid malignancies: a study by the Eurocord-Netcord and Lymphoma Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Study. J Clin Oncol 2009; 27:256-263.

Tang Q, Grzywacz B, Wang H, Kataria N, Cao Q, Wagner JE, Blazar BR, Miller JS, Verneris MF. Umbilical cord blood T cells express multiple natural cytotoxicity receptors after IL-15 stimulation, but only NKp30 is functional. J Immunol 2008;181:4507-4515.

Hippen KL, Harker-Murray P, Porter SB, Merkel SC, Londer A, Taylor DK, Bina M, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Rubinstein P, Van Rooijen N, Golovina TN, Suhoski MM, Miller JS, Wagner JE, June CH, Riley JL, Blazar BR. Umbilical cord blood regulatory T cell (Treg) expansion and functional effects of tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) family members OX40 and 4-1BB expressed on artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs). Blood 2008;112:2847-2857.

McCullar V, Oostendorp R, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Yung G, Lutz CT,Wagner JE, Miller JS. Mouse fetal and embryonic liver cells differentiate human umbilical cord blood progenitors into CD56-negative natural killer cells precursors in the absence of interleukin-15. Exp Hematol 2008;36:598-608.

Brunstein CG, Barker JN, Weisdorf DJ, DeFor TE, Miller JS, Blazar BR, McGlave PB, and Wagner JE. Umbilical cord blood transplantation after non-myeloablative conditioning: impact on transplant Detection in 110 adults with hematological disease. Blood 2007;110:3064-3070.

Miller JS, Weisdorf DJ, Burns LJ, Slungaard A, Wagner JE, Verneris MR, Cooley C, Wangen R, Fautsch SK, Nicklow R, DeFor T, Blazar BR. Lymphodepletion followed by donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) causes significantly more acute graft-versus-host disease than DLI alone. Blood 2007;110:2761-63.

Eapen M, Rubinstein P, Zhang MJ, Stevens C, Kurtzberg J, Scaradavou A, Loberiza FR, Chaplin RE, Klein JP, Horowitz MM, Wagner JE. Detection of transplantation of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood and bone marrow in children with acute leukemia: a comparison study. Lancet 2007; 369:1947-1954.

Wagner JE, Eapen M, MacMillan ML, Harris RE, Pasquini R, Boulad F, Zhang MJ, Auerbach AD. Unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of Fanconi anemia. Blood 2007; 109:2256-2262.

Majhail NS, Weisdorf DJ, Wagner JE, DeFor TE, Brunstein CG, Burns LJ. Comparable results of umbilical cord blood and HLA matched sibling donor hematopoietic stem cell transplant after reduced-intensity preparative regimen for advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  Blood 2006;107:3804-3807.