The Nancy L. R. Bucher, MD Assistant Professorship in Pathology

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Dr. Nancy L. R. Bucher

The Department is extraordinarily pleased to announce the
Nancy L.R. Bucher, MD Assistant Professorship Fund.

The professorship is named for Dr. Bucher, a long time faculty member in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine who has made significant scientific contributions to the understanding of liver regeneration.  She has published dozens of articles in leading journals, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the American Liver Foundation.  Funds from the Bucher Assistant Professorship will be used to recruit a junior faculty member and provide salary support during the initial phase of his or her career.

 

Dr. Nancy L.R. Bucher, MD was a distinguished Professor Emerita of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Dr. Bucher reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 in the department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School she sought out another location to pursue her research and was given a lab at the Shriners Burn Institute where she worked until their retirement age of 70.  At that point she still had two NIH grants and a staff of several people.  She was then offered laboratory space with the Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at BUSM where she worked for close to 30 years.  At BU, Dr. Bucher delightedly collaborated with many colleagues including Drs Steve Farmer and Peter Burke. Dr. Farmer introduced her to the wondrous new world of molecular biology, where answers to her previously unanswerable questions could be realistically addressed. Dr. Bucher was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). The AAAS was chartered in 1780 and is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning and is a nationwide honor society.  Nancy’s most prestigious appointment as a fellow in the AAAS (and up until recent years, a rare woman fellow) is shared with Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and a long list of Nobel Laureates.  Dr. Bucher also received the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the American Liver Foundation. Dr. Bucher closed her lab at BU in 2011.

In recognition of her pioneering work in the field of cell biology, metabolism and liver regeneration the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine established the Nancy Bucher Seminar in 2006. This seminar has recruited internationally acclaimed scientists and will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017. Through a generous donation from an anonymous benefactor, the Department also established the Nancy L.R. Bucher Assistant Professorship in Pathology. Daniel Remick, M.D., Chair of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine states, “The Bucher Assistant Professorship appropriately recognizes the pioneering work done by Dr. Bucher. The Department is grateful to the donor for the gift, and also grateful to Dr. Bucher for her outstanding contributions to science. Dr. Bucher could always be counted on for ground breaking scientific work and an engaging discussion”. Susan Winandy, Nancy Bucher Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine stated, “Dr. Bucher is a great inspiration to me.  She not only had a passion for science, but a dedication to making a difference in people’s lives with her research.”

Publication dedicated to Dr. Nancy Bucher, MD:

The Aging Human Liver: The Weal and Woe of Evolutionary Legacy

Accomplishments:

  • Upon graduation from Johns Hopkins in 1943, she undertook an internship at Boston University – Boston City Hospital and participated, under the direction of Chester Keefer, MD Chief of Medicine, in a nationwide study of a new wonder drug. Dr. Bucher commented that: “In administering this new medicine (penicillin), we saw a miracle every day.”
  • Dr. Bucher’s contributions to the study of liver regeneration, the understanding of growth factors, and the cholesterol synthesis pathway led to her being recognized, by name, in two Nobel Laureate Prize acceptance speeches. Drs. Feodor Lynen and Konrad Bloch 1964, recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
  • Dr. Bucher became an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a nationwide honor society chartered in 1780 and dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning. Dr. Bucher’s prestigious appointment as a fellow in the AAAS (until recent years, a rare woman fellow). Other fellows in the Academy include Presidents George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.
  • Dr. Bucher successfully ran an independent laboratory at Harvard Medical School until she reached mandatory retirement at the age of 65. She moved to the Shiners Hospital to continue her work and was mandated to retire at the age of 70. She then was recruited to the BU School of Medicine where she worked until she was 98. As an Emeritus Professor, Dr. Bucher was the oldest member of the department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, she passed away at the age of 103 in 2017.
  • A recent review article “The Aging Human Liver: The Weal and Woe of Evolutionary Legacy”, Robert K. Gieseler, Thomas Schreiter, Ali Canbay Z Gastroenterol 2023; 61(01): 83-94 made a dedication as follows: “This contribution is dedicated to the memory of the one who started in all: Nancy Leslie Rutherford Bucher, M.D. (1913 – 2017)”

With acknowledgements to the American Society for Cancer Biology 1995 for content