John Wagner MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Institute of Cell, Gene and Immunotherapy and founding member of the Stem Cell Institute, is a clinical and translational investigator in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and immune cell therapies with more than 30 years of experience leading phase l/ll/lll clinical studies in the treatment of malignant disorders and rare genetic diseases. He is most well-known for the development of umbilical cord blood as a source of transplantable stem cells, performing the first transplant with cord blood in a child with leukemia in 1990. He subsequently developed the double umbilical cord blood platform that markedly increased the utilization of this stem cell source in the treatment of adults with hematological malignancies. His current research is focused on hematopoietic stem cell expansion using a aryl hydrocarbon receptor antagonist to speed engraftment after transplant, regulatory T cells to control graft-versus-host disease, thymic progenitors to enhance immune recovery. In addition, he pioneered the use of hematopoietic stem cell transplant as a vehicle for extracellular matrix repair in the treatment of severe forms of epidermolysis bullosa and improved survival in children and adults undergoing transplant for Fanconi anemia.