Marcus J. Wagner, PhD is a Visiting Assistant Professor and Cardiac Physiologist. He graduated from Ursinus College with a B.S. degree in Biology (with honors) in 2017. Marcus pursued his PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Organ Systems and Translational Medicine from Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. While at Temple, he also earned a Certificate in Higher Education. Dr. Wagner pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Sharlene Day’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship from the Brody Family medical trust. He has instructed courses at Ursinus since 2020 and has come on has joined the Biology Department full-time in 2023. Dr. Wagner loves working with his student researchers and strives to help all his students be successful. In his spare time, Dr. Wagner volunteers on the alumni council at Ursinus College and as an assistant swim coach for the Men and Women’s swim team.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a familial, genetically based disease that affects 1 in 500 people. HCM patients exhibit a progressive, symptomatic disease burden that results in adverse cardiac outcomes including heart failure and early mortality. Current therapies are largely palliative for symptomatic benefit only. The Wagner lab aims to better understand the underlying pathophysiology of HCM bycharacterizing cardiac function and the cardiac immune cell landscape of the HCM heart. The lab is actively pursuing projects that assess the effects of sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric gene variants their effects on cardiac function. Additional projects are designed to study the effects exercise has on the cardiac immune cell landscape in the presence of physiological stressors (exercise, high fat diet, and HCM).