CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Dr. Camillo Golgi
(Jul 7, 1843 – Jan 21, 1926)
💠Italian Pathologist
His contributions…
🔸Golgi was born in a small village called Corteno (now named as Corteno Golgi in his honor). He was the son of District Medical Officer.
🔸Golgi was quite impressed by his father’s work and wanted to follow in his footsteps. Hence, he joined to study medicine at the University of Pavia and graduated in 1865.
🔸He was further influenced by Dr. Giulio Bizzozero, who was a specialist in histology of nervous system. Golgi started his experimental medicine with Bizzozero and became an established clinician and histopathologist in 1872.
🔸In 1873, he developed a special staining technique by using silver nitrate. He was the First to reveal neural cells-the axons and the dendrites. He called this method as Black reactions (later renamed as Golgi stain method).
🔸Subsequently, he was the first to give clear description about the structure of cerebellum, olfactory bulb, hippocampus and spinal cord.
🔸His eponyms…
🔅 Golgi apparatus – an intracellular structure.
🔅 Golgi cell – a cerebellar interneurons.
🔅 Golgi-Mazzoni corpuscles – an encapsulated sensory nerve endings.
🔅 Golgi tendon organ – proprioceptive nerve endings in tendon.
🔅 Golgi cycle – Erythrocytic cycle in human malaria.
🔸Additionally, he involved himself in malaria research by helping Dr. Alphonse Laveran and proved that malaria parasite was a microscopic protozoa.
🔸He further studied about the malarial parasite and its transmission. He revealed that malaria fever is caused by asexual stage in the human blood (Erythrocytic cycle or Golgi cycle).
🔸He also described two types of malaria namely, Tertian and Quartan malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium malariae respectively.
🔸One of the most famous beneficiary of Golgi’s work was the famous Spanish Histologist Dr. Ramon y Cajal. By using Golgi’s stain method, he discovered and declared that “Neurons are the fundamental structural unit of the nervous system.”
🔸Finally, Dr. Golgi received the shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr. Ramon y Cajal for the work on the structure of the nervous system in 1906.
A Day to Commemorate…
One of The Founding Fathers of Modern Neuroscience
Dr. Camillo Golgi 🙏
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We grew up learning Golgi bodies in late 60,s! The whole world of medical fraternity are obliged.