Camillo Golgi: biography of this revolutionary Italian cytologist

Together with Ramón y Cajal, this Italian researcher put the neuron on the map of biology.

Italian physiologist Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) is recognized as one of the fathers of cell biology. Specifically, he is known for the development of a technique that revolutionized modern science: the silver staining technique, or Golgi technique. Not only that, but there are several cellular tissues that to this day bear his name.

In this article we will see a brief biography of Camillo Golgi and we will review some of the most important characteristics of his life and his scientific legacy.

Biography of Camillo Golgi: life of a pioneer of cytology

Camillo Golgi was born on July 7, 1843 in the town of Corteno, now the province of Brescia, Italy. In 1865, he graduated from the University of Padua with a degree in medicine, and began practicing in the psychiatric and criminological area. However, his interest his interest soon shifted to histology (the discipline that studies the (the discipline that studies the structure, development and functions of organ tissues).

Specifically while working in the laboratory of experimental pathology at the hand of histology professor Giulio Bizzozero, Golgi took an important interest in the development of experimental and research techniques in the same discipline.

Subsequently, while working as a physicist in a research residence for people with chronic disorders (in the laboratory of the Hospital of Chronic (in the laboratory of the Hospital of Chronicity III, in Abbiategrasso, Italy), Golgi developed a method that proved decisive for the advancement of science in terms of knowing our cellular composition.

He also taught at the University of Torino and the University of Siena. and the University of Siena and finally he became professor of histology at the University of Pavia. Within the same university he was appointed coordinator of the department of medicine and later rector.

Camillo Golgi is recognized as one of the most important physicists and biologists for the development of modern science, especially for the neurosciences of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Golgi's method and the neural network.

Between the years of 1872 and 1875, Camillo Golgi worked as a physiologist in a residence for people with chronic neuronal disorders in Italy. Golgi developed a method that to this day is known precisely as the "Golgi technique". the "golgi technique"..

This is a basic histological procedure that broadly speaking consists of combining different chemicals and then depositing them on the intracellular walls. More specifically, it involves producing a chemical reaction between potassium bichromate and silver nitrate, resulting in a chemical compound called potassium chromate and silver nitrate.This results in a chemical compound called argentic chromate, also known as silver chromate, whose formula is Ag2CrO4.

In visual terms it is a set of red salts, without color or flavor, which has different reactions upon contact with different elements. Among other things, argentic chromate is one of the compounds that has allowed us to develop modern photographic printing.

What Golgi discovered, and later Ramón y Cajal perfected, was that it was possible to possible to stain cellular tissues using argentic chromate.By doing so, the parts that make up these tissues could be clearly visible to the human eye.

Thus it was for the first time possible to take and print photographs of our cells. Specifically, Golgi discovered a type of cell, now known as the "golgi cell", which has distinct extensions (dendrites) that serve to connect it to other cells.

Staining applied to neurons

After going through various processes to perfect the technique, Golgi and Ramón y Cajal applied the silver staining technique to visualize the composition of neurons. to visualize the composition of neurons. Thus, they found that neurons did not exist in isolation and were not connected by continuity, but by contiguity, which means that their connections occur directly through different axons that communicate each neuronal body with the next.

They described this as a kind of mesh or neural network and were the first to take clear impressions of this network. In addition, they argued that the basic structure of the nervous system is precisely the neurons, which was revolutionary for neuroscientific studies at the time, and which is an essential part of the development of contemporary neuroscience. essential part of the development of contemporary neuroscience..

Recognition and scientific legacy

The silver staining technique applied to the study of neurons earned Golgi and Ramón y Cajal the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1906. In addition to this prize, in 1913 Golgi became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of the Netherlands and upon his retirement he was professor emeritus at the University of Pavia.

On the other hand, one of the most popular and representative works of Golgi's legacy is the note entitled "On the structure of the gray matter of the brain", published by the Italian medical journal in 1873. In the following years Golgi continued to publish different articles with images of cellular networks. He is also credited with is credited with having discovered the sensory bodies of the tendons, which are now known as the tendon organs.which are now known as "Golgi's tendon organs".