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 Master of the ACR recipients, Linda Bockenstedt, MD, and Richard Bucala, MD, PhD. Recognition as an ACR Master is one of the highest honors bestowed by the ACR on its members. The designation of Master is conferred on those, age 65 or older, who have made outstanding contributions to rheumatology through scholarly achievement and/or service to their patients, students, and the profession. These honorees have devoted their careers to advancing rheumatology knowledge and improving clinical care.

Linda Bockenstedt, MD

Linda Bockenstedt, MD, is the Harold W. Jockers Professor of Medicine (rheumatology) and Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs at 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 residency training in medicine and serving as Chief Resident in Medicine at Yale, Bockenstedt obtained rheumatology clinical and research fellowship training at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been a faculty member at Yale School of Medicine since 1989, where she directs a research program devoted toward understanding the pathogenesis of Lyme disease, a tick-transmitted infection with rheumatic manifestations. Her laboratory pioneered the use of two-photon intravital microscopy to study Lyme borreliosis in living mice and identified persistence of sterile inflammatory remnants of the Lyme bacteria in joint entheses after antibiotics. Her current studies in humans employ advanced systems technologies to understand the initial host responses that may contribute to diverse clinical outcomes of Lyme disease. As a physician 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 standing member of the Immunity and Host Defense Study Section at NIH and currently serves on the NIAID Council. She is a former member of the board of directors for the American College of Rheumatology Research & Education Foundation. Since 2014, Bockenstedt has led faculty affairs at Yale School of Medicine, first as associate dean, and then in 2017 as deputy dean for academic affairs.

Richard Bucala, MD, PhD

Richard Bucala, MD, PhD, is the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine (rheumatology) and Professor of Pathology and of Epidemiology (microbial diseases) as well as chief of the section of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology and rheumatologist-in-chief, rheumatology,at Yale New Haven Health. He is an affiliated faculty member for the Yale Institute for Global Health. He received BS and MS degrees from Yale University, his PhD from Rockefeller University, and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. After residency training in medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he completed his rheumatology fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Bucala joined the faculty at Yale 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 laboratory is leading multidisciplinary efforts to develop immunotherapies tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup. Bucala was a co-founder of Cytokine Networks and of MIFCOR, a biotechnology startup begun as a student-advised project. His work led to an FDA-approved anti-MIF receptor antibody, and additional MIF-directed therapies developed in his laboratory continue in clinical testing. Bucala also is credited with the discovery of the fibrocyte, which is being targeted in advanced trials of fibrosing disorders. Bucala was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He was editor-in-chief of Arthritis & Rheumatology and has served on numerous advisory boards for the NIH, the pharmaceutical industry, academia, and private foundations.

Bockenstedt and Bucala join Lenore Buckley, MD, MPH, professor of medicine (rheumatology) and of pediatrics (general pediatrics), and Joseph Craft, MD, Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine (rheumatology) and professor of immunobiology, who have previously been recognized as ACR Masters.

The Section of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology is dedicated to providing care for patients with rheumatic, allergic and immunologic disorders; educating future generations of thought leaders in the field; and conducting research into fundamental questions of autoimmunity and immunology. To learn more about their work, visit Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology.