Mary Bartlett Bunge

Mary Elizabeth Bartlett Bunge (April 3, 1931 – February 17, 2024) was an American neuroscientist who researched a cure for paralysis at the University of Miami, where she was a professor of cell biology.

Early life Mary Bartlett was born on April 3, 1931, in New Haven, Connecticut, to George Chapman Bartlett and Margaret Elizabeth (Reynolds) Bartlett. Her father built and renovated houses, including the house in which she grew up, whereas her mother, a descendant of painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, worked as a painter and decorator. Neither of her parents had a college education, and her father thought that a college education was useless for women. Their careers were filled with an artistic expression that Mary found appealing. She developed a passion for biology while she was observing the tadpoles swimming around her and questioned how they developed into frogs. At the end of her junior year at Simmons College, Bartlett was inspired to further her education while attending a program at Jackson Memorial Laboratory, where she witnessed a rabbit's heart contract in a tissue culture. She has dozens of other patents including "Methods and Systems for Neural Maintenance and Regeneration," "Promoters of Neural Regeneration," and "Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitors for Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation." Her research was used for phase one of clinical trials, which gained approval from the FDA in 2012, to evaluate the safety of transplanting the Schwann cells of recently paralyzed patients into the site of their injury.

While the trial occurred, Bunge worked on other combination treatments for future clinical trials. She was a three time recipient of the Javitis Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Selected publications