Santiago ramón y cajal enriqueta ramón y cajal

Ramon and cajal

Having demonstrated the true relationship between nerve cells, and having defeated the hypothesis of diffuse networks, Cajal tackled the exciting problem of neurogenesis, a fundamental point for understanding the formation of nerve pathways and their connection with the sensory and motor apparatus. Let us bear in mind that the integration of the information received by each neuron is determined, fundamentally, by its topography. Neurons are not randomly connected, but rather there is a well-defined pattern of connections that is sculpted during embryonic development between specific cell types. Cajal’s research in this field deserves to occupy a principal place among those owed to his genius. The importance and beauty of the discoveries are in every way comparable to those obtained in the cerebellum or in the retina; and like these, they destroyed errors admitted as incontrovertible facts and opened new directions.
Cajal, a fervent defender of the unity of the laws in biology and convinced that Nature always proceeds in a spirit of strict economy, could not admit that the organism used different and almost antagonistic mechanisms for the construction of the nerves. Don Santiago undertook the study of neurogenesis in bird and mammal embryos; and in the sections of the spinal cord of the chicken embryo he had the fortune to contemplate for the first time, before anyone else, that fantastic end of the growing axon which he baptized as «Cone of Growth». In his studies, Cajal was able to follow from beginning to end the evolution and changes of the nerve cell; he was able to observe the growth of its axon thread and thus confirm the indisputable reality of the Monogenist Theory; that is, of the free growth of the nerve thread coming from a single cell.

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Cajal also identified the existence of appendages on the stems of the dendrites, which he called dendritic spines. Today it is known that they are related to memory and learning, although Cajal’s contemporaries claimed that they did not exist, that it was an artifact of the preparation.
On the other hand, Cajal was also able to understand how information flowed through the brain, what nervous activity was like (the so-called doctrine of dynamic polarization) and to interpret the capacity of neurons to adapt their morphology to functional needs, which is called neuronal plasticity.
During his career, Cajal published more than three hundred articles, not all of them neuroscientific. As we mentioned at the beginning, he also carried out studies in microbiology. In this field, the contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal made in the context of a cholera epidemic in 1885 in Valencia laid the foundations for vaccines based on inactivated bacteria. He also contributed significantly to the study of cancer, contributing, for example, the first description of tumor stem cells or the study of angiogenesis and the relationship between tumor cells and the surrounding stroma (an aspect that is now known to be essential in tumors).

Santiago ramón y cajal enriqueta ramón y cajal 2021

The authors of this research on women in Cajal’s school have studied all the original illustrations of Tello’s neurohistological works, some of which are preserved in the Cajal Legacy. Particularly noteworthy is the fine work, very attentive to detail, by Conchita del Valle, who signed 84 of them. Another 71 are signed by ‘Mª. G. Amador’ and 141 by ‘ERNA’, an unidentified acronym. A total of 247 drawings are unsigned – Go to the Tercer Milenio supplement.

Santiago ramón y cajal cause of death

As in most of his other facets, Ramón y Cajal looked at Education with different eyes. His optic nerve was capable of translating his original proposals into possible and feasible plans. He understood that in the different and the diverse lay the leap forward and educational integration.  His role in the implementation of the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios is key.  The «provincial man devoid of supporters», as he defined himself, had to make a groove and a gap between the endogamy that existed in the University and the didactic plans of the time. A report prepared by Álvaro Bravo de la Guía, including his own production of the musical setting.