Obituary

It is with a heavy heart that we write this testimonial in memory of our colleague Dr. Sushil K. Sarna, who passed away on February 27, 2017 after a short illness. Dr. Sarna was the Charlotte Warmoth Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Neurosciences and Cell Biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, Texas. Dr. Sarna was one of the pioneer investigators in neurogastroenterology and motility, and maintained a strong commitment to the advancement of our field through the continuous production of high quality studies. He was one of the founding editors for our journal Neurogastroenterology and Motility (formerly Journal of Gastrointestinal Motility). Dr. Sarna will be missed by his scientific and academic colleagues. Sushil received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering in University of Delhi, India, and his master's degree and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. An interest in biology led him to the laboratory of Dr. Edwin E. Daniel, a renowned physiologist at the University of Alberta where he began his academic career with a joint appointment in the Departments of Pharmacology and Electrical Engineering. He advanced to Associate Professor at the University of Alberta. After one year as Professor at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, he was recruited to the Medical College of Wisconsin as Professor of Surgery and Physiology and became Director of Digestive Research Center and later Chief of Surgical Research Section at the Zablocki VA Medical Center. In 2002, Dr. Sarna was recruited to UTMB to the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and was later appointed Director of Research in the Division. Dr. Sarna has a notable history of productive and innovative research in the field of gastrointestinal motor and sensory functions in health and disease, including smooth muscle and enteric neural regulation of esophageal, gastric, small intestinal and colonic motor functions, and motor and sensory dysfunctions in preclinical models of inflammatory bowel disease and functional gastrointestinal disorders. Given his knowledge of electrical circuits, it is no surprise that his early important work was in understanding the nature of the slow wave electrical activity of the stomach and intestine and the electrical control of gastrointestinal motility in animal studies. He also collaborated with surgeons, gastroenterologists, and psychiatrists to record slow waves from the human stomach and the colon by using surgically implanted electrodes and intraluminal catheters designed by Dr. Sarna himself. He contributed significantly to our understanding of migrating motor complex and giant migrating contractions, especially the mechanisms and electrical basis of these motor activities. In the early 1990s, Dr. Sarna expanded his horizon by incorporating research related to gastrointestinal inflammation at the intact, cellular, and molecular levels. He published seminal papers identifying motor disturbances in small intestinal and colon inflammations that were the basis of mass propulsions causing diarrhea. He defined for the first time how changes in cell signaling in smooth muscle cells suppressed the phasic contractions, while stimulating the giant migrating contractions, which together cause urgency of defecation and frequent uncontrolled defecation. Later on, his team published a series of elegant studies elucidating molecular mechanisms behind the alterations of key molecules (i.e., G-proteins, Ca2+ channel, PKC) involved in smooth muscle dysfunction in inflammation. In his later career, Dr. Sarna significantly advanced the neurogastroenterology field in two contemporary areas of research: the role of adverse early life experiences in inducing visceral hypersensitivity and smooth muscle dysfunction, and the role of epigenetics in fetal and neonatal programming of gut dysfunctions. He showed that heterotypic intermittent chronic stress during mid to late pregnancy alters the expression of select neurotrophins in primary and secondary visceral nociceptive neurons and in the smooth muscle of the colon to cause gender-specific visceral and motor dysfunctions in the adult offspring. He also found that increased sympathetic activity contributed to chronic stress-induced colonic and gastric hypersensitivity, and identified epigenetic modulations of target genes. As one of the world's leading authorities on neurogastroenterology and motility, Dr. Sarna was recognized with many awards, including the Jansen Award in Gastroenterology for Outstanding Basic Science Research in 1996 and a Senior Medical Career Scientist Award for the Veterans Administration 1984–2001. He published over 240 peer-reviewed manuscripts and reviews. He served on the Editorial Boards of several prestigious gastrointestinal journals, including Gastroenterology and the American Journal of Physiology (Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology). He was a member of several GI societies and an officer in the American Motility Society, the International Motility Society, and the International Society for the Study of Neurogastroenterology and Motility. Dr. Sarna was a dedicated mentor. Those who were fortunate to work in his laboratory received rigorous training in experimental design, data analyses, paper, and grant writing. He was an indefatigable mentor, reviewing all aspects of a mentee's laboratory work and often spending days or weeks on editing papers before submission. He established excellent working relationships with his team members and colleagues. His mentorship was instrumental in the careers of several young scientists, mainly because of his capacity to keep his science current with passing time. Sushil was not one-dimensional: he was an excellent and active tennis player. He enjoyed travelling around the world. Sushil will be missed by his colleagues, but especially by his wife, Rajni, his son Achal, who is a radiologist in Houston, his daughter-in-law Nmita and four grandchildren: Anika, Anya, Krish, and Keshav. Dr. Sushil Sarna can be honored by donations to Pratham USA (http://prathamusa.org/take-action/donate/), a charity dedicated to providing quality education to underprivileged children in India.

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