Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 31: The Government of India has ordered appointment of Dr Anil Koul as the Director for Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), a non- profit research institute of CSIR, located in Chandigarh.
Dr Anil Koul is a distinguished Belgium-based Indian scientist. He will be the first such Indian scientist to officially return after two decades to the country. Presently, he is a senior Director and head, Respiratory Infectious Diseases Group Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies at Belgium.
He is likely to join the new assignment in mid- January He will work closely with India’s Ministry of Science and Technology and with a rank of Additional Secretary, Government of India.
IMTECH is a non-profit research institute with around 300 research scientists focused on microbial research. This appointment stands to enable IMTECH to translate its basic biomedical research into early products and technologies with a greater emphasis on collaborative industrial research.
Dr Anil Koul is an internationally recognized scientist with several publications/ patents. He had his Ph.D. studies at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and in 2004 he joined the Janssen Pharmaceuticals in Beerse.
Dr Koul has been involved in the discovery and clinical development of Bedaquiline -a wonder drug for tuberculosis. It was introduced in the country’s TB control programme under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme in March this year.
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