Dr. Basil Darras is a leading paediatric neurologist with advanced training and certification in human genetics. Born and raised on Samos island and gaining his MD form the University of Athens, Dr. Darras is currently Director of the Division of Clinical Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Basil Darras received his MD from the University of Athens and completed an internship and residency in paediatrics at the State University of New York at Stonybrook and fellowships in Child Neurology and Medical Genetics at Tufts-New England Medical Center and Yale University School of Medicine, respectively.
Dr. Darras’s research has focused on the molecular genetics, diagnostics, and therapeutics of paediatric neuromuscular diseases. Two conditions he specialises in, from a clinical and research perspective, are Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and spinal muscular atrophy. He was one of the first to describe germline mosaicism in DMD, a biological phenomenon with important implications for the genetic counseling of affected families.
Through his clinical and research experience, shared in papers, chapters, books and conference presentations, Dr. Darras has influenced clinical care in the field of paediatric neuromuscular diseases both nationally and internationally.
He has also contributed significantly to the development of methodologies for DNA-based molecular diagnostics of the muscular dystrophies. Further, he has attempted to define the indications for the new diagnostic tests, re-delineate the role of traditional procedures and develop algorithms illustrating the recommended diagnostic approach to the evaluation of children with neuromuscular diseases.
Dr. Darras is also actively working to further research in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). He has joined top clinicians and researchers in New York City and Philadelphia to create the Paediatric Neuromuscular Clinical Research (PNCR) Network.
