The 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Dr. Wagner.
Dr. Wagner, is the ninth recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium (PBMTC). Dr. Wagner is being recognized for a career that exemplifies the mission of the PBMTC to support research and education to improve the availability, safety and efficacy of hematopoietic cell transplantation and other cellular therapeutics for children and adolescents.
Dr. Wagner, is a Director of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program and Scientific Director of Clinical Research of the Stem Cell Institute, and is an international expert on the translational development of hematopoietic and other stem cell populations for testing in humans in phase I-II clinical trials. Notable accomplishments include the first umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplant for leukemia worldwide (1990), development of the double UCB platform for graft ‘engineering’ studies, establishment of a novel nonmyeloablative conditioning regimen in the setting of UCB transplant now referred to as the ‘Minneapolis Regimen’ worldwide, first use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for HLA matching and absence of genetic disease (aka ‘savior sibling’), first-in-human study demonstrating the feasibility and safety of cGMP manufactured natural T regulatory cells in adults and first-in-human study of ex vivo expanded UCB hematopoietic stem cells using the aryl hydrocarbon receptor antagonist, StemRegenin1. Other accomplishments include the first use of allogeneic stem cells to replace extracellular matrix proteins and treat severe forms of a rare skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa. Dr. Wagner has two endowed chairs – the Hageboeck Family/Children’s Cancer Research Fund Chair in Childhood Cancer Research and the McKnight Presidential Chair for his outstanding research at the University of Minnesota. The PBMTC, now headquartered at CHLA, is the largest clinical trials group focused exclusively on blood and marrow transplants for children and adolescents. Under the leadership of Michael Pulsipher, MD, section head of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Endowed Chair, BMT Clinical Research at CHLA, the consortium is comprised of more than 100 pediatric BMT centers in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, with affiliate members in Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. Dr. Wagner will receive the Lifetime Achievement award during the 2017 Tandem BMT Meetings of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, to be held in Orlando, Florida on February 23.