Dr Linda Bockenstedt and Dr Richard Bucala named ACR Masters

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Association of Rheumatology Professionals (ARP) Honor Two Yale Rheumatology Faculty Members as 2022 ACR Master’s Recipients, Linda Bockenstedt, MD, and Richard Bucala , MD, PhD. Recognition as an ACR Master is one of the highest honors awarded by the ACR to its members. The title of Master is conferred on those, aged 65 or over, who have made an outstanding contribution to rheumatology through scholarly achievement and/or service to their patients, students and the profession. These recipients have dedicated their careers to advancing knowledge in rheumatology and improving clinical care.

Linda Bockenstedt, MD

Linda Bockenstedt, MD, is Harold W. Jockers Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology) and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Yale School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College and is a graduate of The Ohio State University School of Medicine. After completing his residency training in medicine and serving as chief medical resident at Yale, Bockenstedt obtained training in clinical rheumatology and research at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been a faculty member at the Yale School of Medicine since 1989, where she directs a research program devoted to understanding the pathogenesis of Lyme disease, a tick-borne infection with rheumatic manifestations. His laboratory pioneered the use of two-photon intravital microscopy to study Lyme borreliosis in live mice and identified the persistence of sterile inflammatory remnants of Lyme bacteria in joint entheses after administration of antibiotics. His current studies in humans use advanced systems technologies to understand initial host responses that may contribute to various clinical outcomes of Lyme disease. As a medical scientist, she is also an active clinician and educator for medical trainees.

Bockenstedt is an elected member of the Kunkel Society and the Interurban Clinical Club. She is a former permanent member of the NIH Immunity and Host Defense Study Section and currently serves on the board of NIAID. She was a board member of the American College of Rheumatology Research & Education Foundation. Since 2014, Bockenstedt has led faculty affairs at the Yale School of Medicine, first as associate dean and then in 2017 as associate dean for academic affairs.

Richard Bucala, MD, Ph.D.

Richard Bucala, MD, PhD, is Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology) and Professor of Pathology and Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) as well as Section Head of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology and Chief Rheumatologist, Rheumatology, at Yale New Haven Health. He is an affiliate faculty member of the Yale Institute for Global Health. He earned BS and MS degrees from Yale University, his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University, and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. After medical residency training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he completed his fellowship in rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Bucala joined the Yale faculty in 2002.

He studies the mechanisms by which protective immune responses lead to immunopathology, focusing on MIF family cytokines and their genetics, which his group first cloned and characterized. Currently, his lab is leading multidisciplinary efforts to develop immunotherapies tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup. Bucala was a co-founder of Cytokine Networks and MIFCOR, a biotech start-up launched as a student-led project. His work has led to an FDA-approved anti-MIF receptor antibody, and other MIF-directed therapies developed in his lab are continuing in clinical trials. Bucala is also credited with the discovery of the fibrocyte, which is being targeted in advanced trials for fibrotic disorders. Bucala has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He was editor-in-chief of Arthritis and rheumatology and has served on numerous advisory boards for the NIH, the pharmaceutical industry, academia, and private foundations.

The Section of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology is dedicated to the care of patients with rheumatic, allergic and immunological disorders; educate future generations of thought leaders in the field; and conduct research on basic questions of autoimmunity and immunology. To learn more about their work, visit Rheumatology, allergy and immunology.