John E Wagner

John E. Wagner Jr. is an American pediatric hematologist-oncologist and hematopoietic stem cell transplant specialist. He was the co-director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota Medical School between 2005 and 2019 stepping down to become director of the Institute of the Cell, Gene and Immunotherapeutics in 2019. He is also co-director of the Center for Translational Medicine, and co-leader of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at the Masonic Cancer Center.

Wagner’s research has focused on expanding the use of umbilical cord blood as a source of hematopoietic stem cells and on developing cellular therapies to reduce complications of transplantation. He then developed the first registry of sibling donor umbilical cord blood transplantation.

His group helped develop approaches to overcome cell-dose limitations in adults, including double-unit cord blood transplantation. A 2014 randomized trial he led through the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network compared single- versus double-unit grafts and informed clinical guidelines.

His work is associated with the global use of cord blood transplantation in more than 50,000 patients. He has also been involved in early applications of preimplantation genetic diagnosis to create matched sibling donors.

The Molly Nash Case (Savior Sibling) In 2000, Wagner led the team that performed the world's first successful hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using umbilical cord blood from a child conceived specifically as a savior sibling.

Molly Rose Nash (born 1994) had been diagnosed with Fanconi anemia, a rare, inherited bone-marrow failure disorder. Her parents, working with reproductive specialist Yury Verlinsky in Chicago, used in vitro fertilisation and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select an embryo that was both free of the Fanconi mutation and an HLA match for Molly. The resulting child, Adam Nash, was born on 29 August 2000.

Stem cells were harvested from Adam’s umbilical cord blood immediately after birth in a non-invasive procedure. In October 2000 the cells were transplanted into six-year-old Molly at the University of Minnesota under Wagner’s direction. Engraftment was successful; Molly’s bone marrow began producing healthy white blood cells and platelets within weeks.

Cellular immunotherapy Wagner has served as principal investigator of an National Cancer Institute Program Project Grant (CA065493) for more than 25 years focused on the development of engineered off-the-shelf allogeneic immune effector cell therapies to reduce graft failure, prevent graft-versus-host disease and prolonged immune deficiency, and relapse after transplantation. Elected member, Association of American Physicians (2006) Elected member, American Society of Clinical Investigation (2000) Fanconi Anemia Pioneer Award for Therapeutic Advancements (2002) McKnight Presidential Chair in Cancer Research, University of Minnesota (2007–present) Children’s Cancer Research Fund/Hageboeck Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology (2005–present)

Selected publications