Julian Wagner is a Group Leader at the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Goethe University Frankfurt, and a speaker in the CPI Academy of the Excellence Cluster “Cardio-Pulmonary Institute.” He earned his PhD in 2020 with Prof. Stefanie Dimmeler, studying endothelial mechanisms in cardiac aging, and subsequently trained as a postdoctoral fellow with short-term visits in the labs of Prof. Kari Alitalo (Helsinki) and Prof. Richard T. Lee (Harvard).
His research focuses on neurovascular and neuro-cardiac interactions in the aging heart, including endothelial senescence, angiocrine signaling, lymphatic vessel biology, and autonomic innervation. Using mouse models, human tissue, and stem-cell–derived cardiac systems, his group has identified regulators such as ZBTB16 in cardiac endothelium and linked age-associated loss of lymphatic vessels to cardiac inflammation, with work published in high-impact journals including Science. Dr. Wagner’s contributions have been recognized with the GfMVB Award 2025 the Rudi-Busse-Young-Investigator Award 2026 and the Boehringer Ingelheim Prize 2026. He is actively involved in collaborative programs such as CRC1366 and CRC1531 and trains doctoral students in cardiovascular aging, vascular biology, and preclinical modeling.