STEVENSON, MD, August 26, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Dr. Daniel B. Drachman with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Drachman celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Daniel Drachman grew up in New York. He graduated from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude, and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. His MD degree was from New York University, where he was presented with the Founders' Day Award, and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. During his post-graduate medical training, he was inspired by several mentors, particularly Dr. Derek Denny-Brown, who was Head of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an expert in muscular diseases, and Dr. Betty Banker, whose specialty was congenital muscular disorders. At the National Institutes of Health, he had the good fortune to work with Dr. Alfred Coulombre, whose expertise was in embryology, and Dr. G. Milton Shy one of the foremost advocates of the application of Neuroscience to Clinical Neurology. Dr. Drachman is Board Certified in Neurology and Psychiatry. Following postdoctoral research at the NIH, Dr. Drachman held academic positions at Georgetown University, Tufts University and Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently Professor of Neurology & Neuroscience, and holds an endowed Professorship -the WW Smith Charitable Foundation Chair in Neuroimmunology.
Dr. Drachman's contributions to the medical field have included defining the pathogenesis of the rare disorder Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, and clubfoot (which is the most common human congenital disorder). His basic science work demonstrated that botulinum toxin can be used to paralyze a single muscle group, without adverse systemic effects, leading to the widespread clinical use of Botulinum toxin. He defined the critical role of acetylcholine transmission in trophic maintenance of skeletal muscles. He described the use of prednisone treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which became the accepted "standard of care". He is best known for his seminal work in defining the pathogenic abnormality in myasthenia gravis as a defect of acetylcholine receptors resulting from an autoimmune process. Dr. Drachman developed several immunosuppressive treatments for myasthenia. He organized a genome wide study of myasthenia gravis, which led to the discovery of abnormal genes.
Dr. Drachman is the author of over 250 scientific publications on myasthenia gravis, muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, clubfoot, developmental disorders, botulinum toxin and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He has been the organizer and chief editor of two symposia of the New York Academy of Science, on Trophic influences of Neurons, and on Myasthenia Gravis. He also organized and edited a recent book describing the first 50 years of Neurology at Johns Hopkins entitled "Johns Hopkins Neurology: Half a Century of Innovation", available through Amazon.
For his many outstanding accomplishments, Dr. Drachman has received numerous accolades. He received the Founders' Day Award from New York University, the Jacob Javits Award from the NIH, the Berson Distinguished Alumnus Award from the New York University School of Medicine. He devised botulinum toxin treatment for the disabling hand dystonia of the famed concert pianist Leon Fleisher, and acted in the documentary film describing the successful treatment, entitled "Two Hands", which was nominated for an Academy Award. Dr. Drachman has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
His research was supported by grants from the NIH for more than 40 years, and from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Dr. Drachman maintains his professional affiliation with the American Academy of Neurology, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Society of Developmental Biology, and the American Neurological Association, among many others.
Dr. Drachman has served on medical advisory boards of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Familial Dysautonomia Foundation, the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He founded the Neuromuscular Unit of the Johns Hopkins Neurology Department, and served as its chair for 40 years, during which he mentored innumerable trainees. It has been named after him as the "Daniel B. Drachman Neuromuscular Unit".
Dr. Drachman is an accomplished clarinetist, who has performed privately with Gregor Piatigorsky, Jascha Heifetz, Israel Baker and Virginia Majeski. He was married to the late Jephta Piatigorsky Drachman, and is the father of Dr. Jonathan Drachman, Evan Drachman and Eric Drachman.
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