Biography of Prof. Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Wagner, MD, PhD

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. rer. nat. Wolfgang Wagner is director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology at RWTH Aachen University Medical School (Germany). He studied Biology and Medicine in Bonn (Germany), Norwich (England) and Biel (Switzerland). From 2002 to 2006 he worked as intern and research assistant at the Department of Hematology/Oncology in Heidelberg University, and worked as post-doctoral fellow at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). In 2006 he started a research fellowship at the Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Heidelberg where he received his habilitation in Physiology in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed as University Professor at RWTH Aachen – initially supported by the Stem Cell Network NRW. In 2021 the section “Stem Cell Biology and Cellular Engineering” became an independent institute.

Prof. Wagner is Cofounder of the company Cygenia (www.cygenia.com) that provides service for epigenetic analysis for other scientists since 2014. In 2015 he received second affiliation to the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences. Prof. Wagner is Editor of the journals Scientific Reports, Cells and Clinical Epigenetics. Since 2018 he is member of the „Ständige Senatskommission für Grundsatzfragen der Genforschung“ at the German Research Foundation (DFG). He has been a member of the board of directors since 2021 and speaker of the representative assembly of the Stem Cell Network NRW since 2023.

His main research interests are 1) epigenetics in hematopoietic differentiation; 2) standardization and characterization of stem cells; 3) interaction of stem cells with biomaterials and their niche; and 4) molecular and epigenetic effects of aging, replicative senescence, and malignant transformation.

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