Lucien Bavetta; Biochemist and Nutrition Expert

Lucien A. Bavetta, the retired chairman and professor of biochemistry and nutrition at USC’s School of Dentistry and the scientist whose research into collagen led to the use of penicillamine to treat rheumatism and arthritis, has died.

Bavetta was 79 and his death Jan. 15 in Auburn, Calif., was attributed to Parkinson’s disease coupled with congestive heart failure.

A native of Italy, Bavetta came to the United States as a boy and studied at New York University and USC, where he received his master’s and doctorate degrees.

He became a biochemist and specialist in human nutrition whose research on cell groups was credited with advancing the cause of organ transplants.

In 1964 he became only the fifth scientist in the United States to receive a Career Research Award from the U.S. Public Health Service. The grant, given in honor of his work with collagen, a protein in the skin, bones and teeth that deteriorates with age, was for $25,000 a year for the remainder of his career.

Bavetta’s research on protein deficiencies in teeth earned him a yearlong appointment as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., in 1955, and his studies on the effects of Vitamin D on the growth of teeth in rabbits became the subject of an article in Life magazine in 1954. He also was the author of papers on nutrition, connective tissue, metabolism and developmental biology that appeared in many distinguished scientific publications.

Bavetta, who lived in Meadow Vista since his retirement in 1972, is survived by his wife, Mildred, a son, a daughter, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.