Laurance Johnston obtained his masters and doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from Northwestern University (Illinois). His Ph.D. research focused on the mechanism of action of various antibiotics, including vancomycin, an antibiotic of last resort in resistant infections. While later working at the Chicago Medical School, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon/Walter Winchell Cancer Foundation. He later obtained a MBA degree from George Mason University in Virginia.

Dr. Johnston became a regulatory scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and later Director, Division of Scientific Review, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (NIH). After leaving NIH, he assumed the directorship of the Spinal Cord Research and Education Foundations, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).

Supported by PVA and now by the Icelandic government, Dr. Johnston has written extensively on various therapies that expand the healing spectrum of people with spinal cord injury. He has been invited to speak at national and international meetings and is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World . (Top Photo: Laurance Johnston with former Iceland President Vigdis Finnbogadottir)