Octavian Bucur, MD, PhD

MD, PhD trained in Molecular and Computational Pathology, Molecular Oncology and Medicine, Biomedical Technology Development. MD from Carol Davila University, Bucharest, the leading medical school from Romania; PhD in Biochemistry/Biology from Romanian Academy with work and training performed at Harvard Medical School/BIDMC.

13 years of training and research at Harvard Medical School: Postdoctoral Fellow at BIDMC & Harvard Medical School, Instructor in Pathology (Faculty), Harvard Medical School (2017-2018); Associate Member, Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard (2014-2015), Associate Member of the Ludwig Cancer Center at Harvard University, Boston, MA (2016-2018), affiliated with Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, MA (2016-2018). Co-Founder and CEO of QPathology, Boston, MA (2018-present) and Editor in Chief of the journal Discoveries (2013-present).

Dr. Octavian Bucur has made impactful contributions in several research fields, including Pathology, being one of the main developers of Expansion Pathology (Nature Biotechnology 2017 (in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric), Nature Protocols 2020; 3 patents). This method extends the current resolution limit (250 nm) of the optical microscopes to 70 nm, enabling visualization of smaller nanoscopic structures with inexpensive optical microscopy in preserved tissue specimens, after physical tissue expansion. Expansion-related technologies have tremendous implications in several biomedical fields, including diagnostic pathology, neuroscience and molecular medicine.

Among the honors and awards received over the years are: ranked 1st out of >100 - Best Scientific Presentation Award (2017, Harvard Medical School Pathology Retreat of MGH, BIDMC, BWH, DFCI, Children’s Hospital Boston); The AACR-Millennium Pharmaceuticals Award (2015, Philadelphia, PA), IUBMB Travel Fellowship (2010, Melbourne, Australia), AACR-Aflac Award (2008, San Diego, CA); Lady Tata Memorial Trust International Award for Leukemia Research (2007, London, UK); European Union - Leonardo da Vinci Research Award (2004, Magdeburg, Germany); Invited Keynote Speaker (conferences in San Francisco, Chicago, London (UK)) and Special Lectures (Boston, Detroit); Chair of the Scientific Selection Committee for the RALI's Grand Rounds competition, Research Assistant Learning Initiative, Boston (2017-2018); Invited Judge for many undergraduate/graduate research competitions; International grant evaluator (Australia, Georgia).

Professor. Octavian Bucur is also the Editor in Chief of the journal Discoveries (PubMed and PMC indexed in 2019/09): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/3713/