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Frontline Wangler

Cross Country

Alumni in Action: A Conversation with Michael Wangler '00

LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego Athletics is sharing the perspectives of alumni scholar-athletes whose work in healthcare has been impacted by COVID-19. Today’s featured alumnus is Michael Wangler '00, a long distance runner on the track and field and cross country teams. 

Wangler's main events in track were the 800 meter and 1500 meter. In addition, he was a member of the cross country team that finished third at the CCAA Championships in ‘98 and ’99. Wangler also contributed to cross country's Division III West Region Championship in ‘98 and the Division III West Region Runner-up in ’99. 

A product of Los Alamos, N.M., Wangler graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Molecular Biology in 2000 from Revelle College. The following year, he completed the B.S./M.S. program in Genetics in La Jolla as well. Wangler was named a Chancellor's Scholar-Athlete in 2000-01. 

Michael Wangler
Wangler in clinic prior to the coronavirus pandemic.


Q: What is your job and where are you currently working?
Wangler: I'm a physician-scientist, I clinically specialize in pediatrics and medical genetics, and I do medical research. I am currently an Assistant Professor in Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. I run a laboratory that studies the human genome in rare genetic disease and I see patients at Texas Children's Hospital where I work to diagnose children with mysterious genetic illness. I'm involved in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, a large effort to solve medical mysteries. 

Q: How is COVID-19 impacting the work that you do and your life outside of work?
Wangler: Texas Children's Hospital has worked to continue to serve children's health during the pandemic. My medical practice has shifted to many Telemedicine visits for genetics, our hospital has many changes in practices such as use of masks and PPE, and the hospital has cared for children with multi-inflammatory syndrome related to SARS-CoV-2.  I have also seen the pandemic create serious challenges for families that were already dealing with so much. Children with rare diseases often rely on in-home therapies and services that were suddenly halted.  In my research, we are monitoring for safety as we are emerging from a lab shutdown and we have shifted all our research meetings and discussions to online, saving all our limited lab time for essential experiments.  I am also involved in some group efforts to use genome sequencing in viral testing with our Genome center and understanding of COVID-19.  

In my personal life, my children were suddenly home schooled and I shifted to teaching them.  I also miss going to group yoga and spin classes that were part of my stress relief before.  I therefore took the COVID-19 shutdown as an opportunity to run more outdoors on more remote paths in the city. I have been increasing my mileage, and doing kettlebell training in the house to try to take the opportunity of being home more during the day to improve my own health.  


Q: What did you learn from being a scholar-athlete that you've been able to apply to your profession?
Wangler: I was a track (800 meter, 1500 meter) and cross country runner, and I loved learning that even in an individual sport, you can choose to help your teammates in a run or a race.  You have to be better to make them better, but you also have to know it isn't always about you.  As a physician-scientist I take that same team ethic. I have to ensure that I am well trained as an individual, as a doctor and scientist, but at the same time, I work well in teams by trying to have multiple disciplines working on a research problem.  I have excelled in both team science as well as conducting my own projects and I learned many of those tools as a UC San Diego scholar-athlete.  

I also learned that most things worth achieving require long months and years of dedication.  The long workouts on the track or the trails build up in the legs, whether they are part of a big race or a Sunday out on a trail, all part of a long-term choice. I definitely needed that type of dedication in medicine and research. 

Wangler XC
Wangler at the DIII NCAA XC Championships held in Carlisle, PA.

Q: What suggestions, advice, or words of encouragement do you have for our current-scholar athletes during these trying times?
Wangler: This time is very hard for everyone. Try to remember that nobody is perfect, and that includes you.  It hurts to have a season cancelled after working so hard, and the future is not clear. It's okay for everyone to have different ways of dealing with it. Some people are able to adjust quickly, pivot, and take advantage of the opportunities that all these changes present. If you feel that and you have those opportunities, definitely take them. This is a tremendous time to train, to improve yourself, to get ready for the future, to remember what is most important. However, for other people, just getting one thing done takes a lot of energy, that's also an accomplishment. Truthfully just getting through one more day of this is an accomplishment. It is one day closer to better knowledge of the virus, one day closer to better safer practices in our new reality, and we are one day closer to more knowledge, more medical tools and better solutions.  Whatever pain or setbacks you have faced in your sport has made you more resilient and ready for times like this.  

Wangler TF

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Wangler: One of my best memories from UC San Diego was seeing Maya Angelou speak in RIMAC Arena. She read many poems including one that has become my favorite during COVID-19, “Conscientious Objector” by Edna St Vincent Millay.  It holds true: http://bactra.org/Poetry/Millay/Conscientious_Objector.html

"Alumni in Action" is an on-going series highlighting UC San Diego alumni in healthcare during COVID-19. Below are previous "Alumni in Action" conversations:

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I.  The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in DivisionsIII and II and helped guide more than 1,300 scholar-athletes to All-America honors.  A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.  UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.

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