From Golgi to modern Neuroscience

Camillo Golgi is famous because he developed a new staining technique known as “reazione nera”, which allowed to highlight individual brain cells. The use of Golgi’s staining method allowed Ramón y Cajal to demonstrate that nervous cells are discrete units, called neurons. In 1890 Golgi was elected Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei; and in 1906 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ramón y Cajal “in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system”. In 1898 he identified an intracellular structure now called the Golgi apparatus, a discovery which represents a cornerstone of cell biology. This conference celebrates the 100th anniversary of Golgi’s death.