From Summer Intern to MD-PhD: How One Student Is Helping Transform Heart Preservation Technology

Mitchell Wagner, MD-PhD researcher

Mitchell Wagner’s path toward becoming a surgeon-scientist began in February 2022. While finishing an undergraduate degree in Immunology and Infection, he joined Dr. Darren Freed’s laboratory in the Department of Surgery as a volunteer. That initial role quickly evolved: a departmental summer scholarship in 2022 led directly into a Master of Science program under Dr. Freed’s mentorship that fall.

The lab focuses on ex-vivo organ perfusion—a technology that extends how long donor hearts can be preserved prior to transplantation. Working at the intersection of cardiovascular physiology and cutting-edge medical devices, Mitchell quickly found success fueled by the department’s high-calibre research environment and world-class infrastructure.

During his MSc, Mitchell built an impressive record of academic excellence. He earned top national and institutional honors, including:

• CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s (now CGRS-M)
• Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship
• Cote Biomedical Research Scholarship
• Ray Rajotte Graduate Student Award

Beyond the lab, he took his research to national and international stages, winning presentation awards at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress and standing out as a finalist in both the Falling Walls Lab and the University of Alberta’s 3-Minute Thesis competitions. Most notably, Mitchell’s original research proposals—developed with Dr. Freed—secured nearly $500,000 in grant funding. This support advances organ preservation and explores new frontiers in blood storage and transfusion through interdisciplinary collaborations with Canadian Blood Services.

Toward the end of his Master’s, Mitchell was accepted into the University of Alberta’s MD-PhD program (Class of 2028), supported by the Dr. and Mrs. Hazen Hankinson Dean’s Undergraduate Citation in Medicine. After defending his MSc thesis, he completed the first two years of medical school while continuing research in his off-time.

His commitment to collaboration has yielded extraordinary output for an early-career researcher: 24 total publications to date, serving as first author on 14 of them. Mitchell also pays his experience forward by mentoring three undergraduate students in the lab—all of whom have since stepped into graduate studies and secured competitive scholarships of their own.

Mitchell’s involvement extends across the broader cardiovascular research community:

• Leadership Roles: Member of the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress Trainee Committee and the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) Pediatric Medical Device Day planning committee.
• Global Experience: Completed a research internship at Boston Children’s Hospital—funded by the CIHR and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS)—focusing on engineering techniques to improve repairs for congenital heart defects.

Now back in the Department of Surgery as a full-time PhD student, Mitchell is supported by elite funding, including the Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS-D) alongside the President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction, the BMO Financial Group Graduate Scholarship, and the H Jean McDiarmaid Scholarship.

With his full focus returned to research, Mitchell aims to drive translational discoveries that directly improve care for both pediatric and adult cardiovascular patients across Canada and worldwide.