Obituary: Dr Girish Sahni, Ex CSIR Director General & IMTECH Director passes away

New Delhi: Dr Girish Sahni, former Director General (DG) of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) from 2015-2018 passed away on August 19, 2024. Before his stint as DG, CSIR, he was the Director of the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh from year 2005 to 2015.

Dr Sahni’s contributions in the area of protein cardiovascular drugs especially ‘clot
busters’ and their mode of action in the human body have been immense. He is
credited to have developed India’s first indigenous clot bluster drug in form of natural
streptokinase followed by recombinant and clot-specific streptokinase.

Born on March 2, 1956, Dr Sahni did his PhD from Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Bangalore. His post-PhD career included a stint each in University of California, Santa
Barbara, Rockefeller University New York and Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
New York and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. He specialized in protein
engineering, molecular biology and biotechnology and was one of the most adept
translational scientist of his times.

“CSIR-IMTECH family deeply mourns the loss of Dr Girish Sahni, a visionary leader
who helped build the institute and took it to greater heights,” said Dr Sanjeev Khosla,
Director, CSIR-IMTECH. He also informed that even after Dr Sahni’s retirement, he
provided mentorship to many young scientists in the institute.

Dr Anil Koul, Former Director of IMTECH and now Vice President and Head of Global Public Health Discovery & Partnerships, Johnson & Johnson said, “Dr Sahani’s contributions to science and institutions across India will be fondly remembered. His accomplishments and passion for translating the science, be it protein therapeutics for dissolving clots in blood, into meaningful innovations and products will always be highly appreciated.”

“With passing away of Dr Sahni, we lose a good friend, a terrific translational scientist, one of the foremost biotechnologists, and a fine human being. His work on Streptokinase was a block buster, what he used to call as a clot buster. His was one of the most visible tech transfers in Indian Academia,” wrote Dr Shekhar Mande, former Director General, CSIR on X (formerly twitter).

Dr Girish Sahni’ death is being widely condoled by the bioscience fraternity, both academia and the industry.