By IANS
New Delhi : Eminent scientist Samir K. Brahmachari was Monday appointed the new director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the country’s largest scientific body that has had no full-time chief for the past 10 months.
Brahmachari, 55, the former director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, took charge of CSIR from the officiating director general T. Ramasami, who is also the secretary, department of science and technology.
Earlier he was a professor of molecular biophysics and genetic engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He got his Ph.D in 1979 in molecular biophysics from the same institute.
Brahmachari had made fundamental discoveries in demonstrating the structural flexibility of DNA and the role of repetitive sequences in DNA transactions.
He has made major contributions in molecular analysis of genetic and neurological disorders. He was first to establish a close clinical network to address genetics of complex disorders and demonstrated association of two genes to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
He has pioneered functional genomics initiative in India and is successfully led the Indian genome Variation Consortium project and presently coordinating a national network project in ‘In Silico Biology’ for drug target development.
He was also contributed in controlling the HIV genes and helped in opening up new vista of antiviral therapeutics.
He has also won several prestigious wards like Young Scientists Award in 1979, Kani Medal from the National Cancer Research Centre, Japan in 1981, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1990 and H. K. Firodia awards For Excellence in Science and Technology (2007).
Brahmachari has over 130 publications in leading international journals and has 5 patents and 10 software copyrights to his credit.