Golgi, Camillo

1995/08/02 Azkune Mendia, Iñaki - Elhuyar Fundazioa | Kaltzada, Pili - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Biografiak

(1844-1926)

Italian doctor and historian born in the village of Corteno, next to Brescia, in 1844. In his family there was a great fondness for medicine and the young Camilo also took his steps in that direction. In 1865 he received his doctorate from the University of Padua. He soon began to work and, although he initially dealt with psychiatry, spent the most prosperous years researching tissues and cells. He worked as an assistant at the University of Pavia and between 1872 and 1875 worked at the Abbiategras Hospital. The discovery was fundamental for further research.

Until then Fleming, Koch and Ehrlich used organic substances to dye fabrics. Through this procedure invisible elements for the human eye were discovered. Golgi used silver salts in the same task and could see previously unknown cellular structures.

Using silver salts, he was able to analyze the textile structure of the nervous system. He discovered the different cellular structures and described their operation with great precision. Among other things, he was able to demonstrate the existence of a basic nervous cell in the nervous system. Since then it is known with the name of Golgi cell the singular structure that binds the rest of nerve cells. This discovery is the starting point of current neurology. Golgi claimed that what he saw reaffirmed Waldeyer's theory. Until then the hypothesis that the union between nerve cells is not total and that among these structures there were gaps called synapses.

In 1880 he discovered the nervous structure of the tendons. In 1883 he discovered and described the textile structure known as the Golgi apparatus. It is a set of membranes and vesicles folded in the cytoplasm of several cells, which is responsible for the accumulation and transport of enzymes and/or hormones.

He was professor of anatomy at the University of Siena and at the University of Pavia he taught histology and pathology.

Since 1880 he has carried out research on malaria analyzing these relationships between the origin of the disease and its subsequent evolution. The result of this work is a study on the different manifestations of malaria.

In 1906 he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology with Ramón y Cajal.

Golgi continued to investigate and teach until in 1926 he went to look for a hero in his house in Pavia.