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PU alumnus, CSIR IMTECH ex-director Girish Sahni passes away
Sahni’s post-PhD career included notable positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Rockefeller University, New York, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York
Former director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) Dr Girish Sahni passed away on Sunday. He was 68.
Born on March 2, 1956, Sahni was an alumnus of Panjab University (PU) where he completed his graduation and post-graduation in microbiology (1973-78) and went on to pursue his PhD at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
His post-PhD career included notable positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Rockefeller University, New York, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
Sahni later assumed the role of director general of CSIR, and secretary of department of scientific and industrial research, ministry of science and technology.
Apart from these positions, he was an honorary professor at PU, Bhatnagar fellow at IMTECH and Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), and a visiting professor at Indian School of Business.
Dr Sahni specialised in protein engineering, molecular biology, and biotechnology. He made significant contributions to the field of protein-based cardiovascular drugs, particularly in the development of “clot busters” and their mechanisms of action within the human body.
Under his leadership, his team developed technology for India’s first indigenous clot buster drug, natural streptokinase. The worth of this technology was over $160 million. Furthermore, they were responsible for the groundbreaking development of fourth-generation “anti-thrombotic” clot busters, the first of their kind in the world.
