Prof. Kshitish Chandra Das passed away due to massive myocardial infarction on the morning of 11th February 2015. With him India lost one of the doyens of the haematologists in this country. Prof. Das was like an itinerant Indian Guru. His one remark, even though sarcastically made did put many of his students in the right course of life. He has produced many haematologists of repute spread across India and in all continents of the world. He was one of the founder members of Indian Society of Human Genetics and was one of the pioneers in establishing cytogenetics in this country.
He was born on 1st March 1933 in Bengal. After completing his initial education in Bengal, he joined the Hematology unit of Department of Pathology, at the famous Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) at Chandigarh, India in 1965 as a Senior Lecturer. He became a professor in 1975 and continued to head the department till 1985. During his tenure he made that centre, the best centre for haematological diagnosis, study, research and management. His students were very fond of him and liked his affectionate and aloof qualities. As a scientist he was one of the leading workers in haematology research in India and he had a very few competitors even in international arena at biochemical level study for megaloblastic anaemia. He spent a large part of his career at Kuwait University where he established a very successful and busy haematology department. He took initiative in that country to develop MRCPath training programme in close association with Royal College of Pathologists of London.
During his commonwealth fellowship at RPMS, London (from 1967 to 1969) he worked with Prof. A. V. Hoffbrand on folate transport mechanism across lymphocyte membranes and the role of Vitamin B12 coenzymes in the facilitation of the process and vice versa. Later on a lot of his studies in this area were published with Prof. Victor Herbert from U.S.A. Many of his research papers were published as full papers in the British Journal of Haematology. During his tenure in PGIMER, Chandigarh, many dignitaries like Prof. J. V. Dacie (U.K.), Prof. P.M. Mannucci (Italy) and Prof. D. G. Pennigton (Australia) visited his department. He established a simple radio assay for vitamin B12 binding proteins using Haemoglobin coated charcoal, DEAE and QUSO-G32. He not only continued to show his innovative ways of studying various challenges in haematology he was also acutely aware of need to continuously improve haematology training. As early as 1979 he strongly recommended developing a haemopoietic stem cell transplantation set up at PGIMER, Chandigarh.
He was chairman and member of innumerable scientific bodies and institution and as chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of this institute he stimulated, advised and inspired many of us and was in many ways responsible for putting this institute into a research trajectory which is remarkable.
His command on English language and choice of words were as sharp as his intellect. His department was one of the few departments in the country where experimental haematology was practiced in India using radioisotopes, microbial assays, cell culture studies and large and small animals to answer various haematological problems.
He developed an animal model of tropical sprue in the rhesus monkey with Prof. S. K. Mehta from the department of gastroenterology of the same Institute.
He used 3H thymidine uptake inhibition assay for detecting the effect of various chemotherapies on leukaemia cells. He established his own factor VIII assay technique using rabbit serum as the source of the factor VIII deficient system. Not having a particular reagent as an excuse for not doing some study was not acceptable to him. He used ex polycythaemic mouse bioassay of erythroprotein to study anaemia of thyroid deficiency with Prof. Rastogi from the department of endocrinology. This study became a classical study and was continued to be referred in standard endocrinology text books for years to come.
He received 15 national awards including Manorama Sapre Oration Award of ‘Indian Society of Hematology & Blood Transfusion-ISHBT’ (1978), J. B. Chatterjee Memorial Oration Award of ISHBT (1988) and Bhatia Memorial Oration Award (ICMR) (1993). Latest one was the ‘Life Time Achievement Award’ bestowed upon him by ISHBT during the national conference held in Mumbai in November 2013.
He published around 260 research papers, mostly in high impact international journals (including Nature, Blood, Br J Haematology, Acta Haematologica, Am J Hematology, etc.) and some in national Journals, and contributed 12 chapters to text books and monographs.
In his family life Prof. Das was a happy man. His wife worked as professor of sanskrit language in Govt. College at Chandigarh and his two daughters Dr. Monalisa and Dr. Monisha are well established doctors at Canada and USA. Prof. Das was an itinerant traveler. Any new finding used to excite him like a child. This we have often seen in his face when he used to stare at the beauty of a frankly megaloblastic erythrocyte through his microscope. He has mentored us like a real Indian Guru and always relished the success of his students. India has lost a great haematologist and we have lost our great guru. May his soul rest in peace.
Some Important Publications of Prof. K.C. Das
Sen NN, Das KC, Aikat BK. Foetal haemoglobin in the monkey. Nature. 1960;186:977–8.
Das KC, Aikat BK. A method for the assay of factor 8 without haemophilic plasma. Indian J Med Res. 1966;54:1138–44.
Das KC, Aikat BK. Chromosomal abnormalities in multiple myeloma. Blood. 1967;30:738–48.
Das KC, Hoffbrand AV. Folate uptake by lymphocytes. Br J Haematol. 1969;17:613–4.
Hoffbrand AV, Tripp E, Das KC. Uptake of vitamin B12 by phytohaemagglutinin-transformed lymphocytes. Br J Haematol. 1973;24:147–56. PubMed .
Das KC, Herbert V. The lymphocyte as a marker of past nutritional status: persistence of abnormal lymphocyte deoxyuridine (dU) suppression test andchromosomes in patients with past deficiency of folate and vitamin B12. Br J Haematol. 1978 ;38:219–33.
Mehta SK, Chakravarti RN, Nain CK, Das KC, Bhagwat AG, Mehta S. Primate model of sprue-like syndrome. Isr J Med Sci. 1979;15:348–55.
Das KC, Manusselis C, Herbert V. Simplifying lymphocyte culture and the deoxyuridine suppression test by using whole blood (0.1 mL) instead of separated lymphocytes. Clin Chem. 1980;26:72–7.
Das KC, Manusselis C, Herbert V. In vitro DNA synthesis by bone marrow cells and PHA-stimulated lymphocytes. Suppression by nonradioactive thymidine of the incorporation of 3H-deoxyuridine into DNA: enhancement of incorporation when inadequate vitamin B12 or folate is corrected. Br J Haematol. 1980;44: 51–63.
Garewal G, Mohanty D, Das KC. A study of hypoplastic anaemia. Indian J Med Res. 1981;73:558–70.
Mohanty D, Ghosh K, Garewal G, Vajpayee RK, Prakash C, Quadri MI, Das KC. Antithrombin III deficiency in an Indian family. Thromb Res. 198215;27:763–5.
Mohanty D, Das KC. Effect of folate deficiency on the reproductive organs of female rhesus monkeys: a cytomorphological and cytokinetic study. J Nutr. 1982 Aug;112(8):1565–76. PubMed PMID: 7097366.
Mohanty D, Marwaha N, Ghosh K, Chauhan AP, Shah S, Sharma S, Das KC. Vascular occlusion and disseminated intravascular coagulation in falciparum malaria. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1985 12;290(6462):115–6.
Das KC, Mohanty D, Garewal G. Cytogenetics in nutritional megaloblasticanaemia: prolonged persistence of chromosomal abnormalities in lymphocytes after remission. Acta Haematol. 1986;76(2–3):146–54.
Ghosh K, Mohanty D, Rana KS, Garewal G, Das KC. Plasma transcobalamins inchronic granulocytic leukaemia--changing pattern from chronic phase to blastcrisis. Indian J Cancer. 1987;24(2):79–90.
Mohanty D, Ghosh K, Das KC. Studies on the mechanism of synthesis and releaseof the procoagulant activity from leukaemic cells. Med Oncol Tumor Pharmacother. 1991;8:15–21.
Mohanty D, Gomez J, Mustafa KY, Khogali M, Das KC. Pathophysiology of bleedingin heat stress: an experimental study in sheep. Exp Hematol. 1997;25(7):615–9.