View source for Santiago Ramón y Cajal

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==Overview==
'''Santiago Ramón y Cajal''' (May 1, 1852 &ndash; October 17, 1934) was a Spanish [[histology|histologist]], [[physician]], and Nobel laureate. He is considered to be one of the founders of [[neuroscience]].

== Biography == 
The son of Justo Ramón and  Antonia Cajal, Ramón y Cajal was born of Aragonese parents in Petilla de Aragón in Navarra, Spain. As a child he was transferred between many different schools because of his poor behaviour and anti-authoritarian attitude. An extreme example of his precociousness and rebelliousness is his imprisonment at the age of eleven for destroying the town gate with a homemade cannon. He was an avid painter, artist, and gymnast. He worked for a time as a shoemaker and barber, and was well known for his pugnacious attitude.

Ramón y Cajal attended the medical school of Zaragoza, from which he graduated in 1873. After a competitive examination, he served as a medical officer in the Spanish Army. He took part in an expedition to Cuba in 1874-75, where he contracted [[malaria]] and [[tuberculosis]]. After returning to Spain he married Silveria Fañanás García in 1879, with whom he had four daughters and three sons. He was appointed as a university professor at Valencia in 1881, and in 1883 he received his [[Doctor of Medicine|medical degree]] in Madrid. He later held professorships in both Barcelona and Madrid. He was Director of the Zaragoza Museum (1879), Director of the National Institute of Hygiene (1899), and founder of the {{lang|es|''Laboratorio de Investigaciones Biológicas''}} (1922) (later renamed to the {{lang|es|''Instituto Cajal''}}, or Cajal Institute). He died in Madrid in 1934.

== Works and theories ==
Ramón y Cajal's most famous studies were on the fine structure of the [[central nervous system]]. Cajal used a histological staining technique developed by his contemporary [[Camillo Golgi]]. Golgi found that by treating [[brain]] tissue with a silver chromate solution, a relatively small number of [[neuron]]s in the brain were darkly stained. This allowed Golgi to resolve in detail the structure of individual neurons and led him to conclude that nervous tissue was a continuous reticulum (or web) of interconnected [[cell (biology)|cell]]s much like those in the [[circulatory system]].

Using [[Golgi's method]], Ramón y Cajal reached a very different conclusion. He postulated that the [[nervous system]] is made up of billions of separate [[neuron]]s and that these cells are "dynamically polarized", i.e., they receive information at their cell bodies and [[dendrites]], and  transmit it unidirectionally towards other sites via their [[axons]].  Rather than forming a continuous web, Cajal suggested that neurons communicate with each other via specialized junctions called [[synapse]]s, a term that was coined by [[Charles Scott Sherrington|Sherrington]] in 1897. This [[hypothesis]] became the basis of the [[neuron doctrine]], which states that the individual unit of the nervous system is a single neuron.  [[Electron microscope|Electron microscopy]] later showed that a [[cell membrane|plasma membrane]] completely enclosed each neuron, supporting Cajal's [[theory]], and weakening Golgi's reticular theory.

However, with the discovery of [[electrical synapse]]s (gap junctions: direct junctions between nerve cells), some have argued that Golgi was at least partially correct. For this work Ramón y Cajal and Golgi shared the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1906.

Ramón y Cajal also proposed that the way [[axon]]s grow is via a [[growth cone]] at their ends.  He understood that neural cells could sense chemical signals that indicated a direction for growth, a process called [[chemotaxis]].

== Distinctions and books ==
Among his many distinctions and societal memberships, Ramón y Cajal was also made an honorary Doctor of Medicine of the Universities of Cambridge and Würzburg and honorary [[Doctor of Philosophy]] of the Clark University.

He published over 100 scientific works and articles in French, Spanish, and German. Among his most notable were ''Rules and advices on scientific investigation'', ''Histology'', ''Degeneration and regeneration of the nervous system'', ''Manual of normal histology and micrographic technique'', ''Elements of histology'', ''Manual of general [[pathology|pathological]] [[anatomy]]'', ''New ideas on the fine anatomy of the nerve centres'', ''Textbook on the nervous system of man and the [[vertebrate]]s'', and ''The [[retina]] of vertebrates''.

In 1905, he published five science-fictional "Vacation Stories" under the pen name "Dr. Bacteria." 

The asteroid 117413 Ramonycajal is named in his honour.

==Gallery of drawings by Santiago Ramón y Cajal==
<gallery>
Image:CajalHippocampus.jpeg|Drawing of the neural circuitry of the rodent [[hippocampus]]. {{lang|fr|Histologie du Systeme Nerveux de l'Homme et des Vertebretes}}, Vols. 1 and 2. A. Maloine. Paris. 1911.
Image:CajalCerebellum.jpg|Drawing of the cells of the chick [[cerebellum]], from "{{lang|es|Estructura de los centros nerviosos de las aves}}", Madrid, 1905.
Image:Cajal Retina.jpg|From "Structure of the Mammalian [[Retina]]" Madrid, 1900.
Image:PurkinjeCell.jpg|Drawing of [[Purkinje cell]]s (A) and granule cells (B) from pigeon cerebellum by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1899. Instituto Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain.
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Interstitial cells of Cajal]]

==References==
*{{cite book
 |    author = Ramón y Cajal, Santiago
 |      year = 1937
 |     title = {{lang|es|''Recuerdos de mi Vida''}}
 | publisher = MIT Press
 |  location = Cambridge
 |        id = ISBN 8420622907
}}
*{{cite book
 |    author = Ramón y Cajal, Santiago
 |    others = translated by Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson
 |      year = 1999
 |  origyear = 1897
 |     title = ''Advice for a Young Investigator''
 | publisher = MIT Press
 |  location = Cambridge
 |        id = ISBN 0262681501
}}
*{{cite book
 |    author = Everdell, William R.
 |      year = 1998
 |     title = ''The First Moderns''
 | publisher = University of Chicago Press
 |  location = Chicago
 |        id = ISBN 0226224805
}}

==External links==
*[http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1906/index.html The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1906] 
*[http://nobelprize.org/medicine/articles/cajal/ Life and discoveries of Cajal]
*[http://www.pyreneesguide.com/articles.asp?cID=56&sID=395&aID=1449 Ramon y Cajal, an Aragonese Nobel Prize]
*[http://www.bib.ub.edu/recursos-informacio/colleccions/colleccions-especials/fons-ramon-y-cajal/ Special Collection: Santiago Ramón y Cajal] (University of Barcelona Library)
* [http://www.psu.edu/nasa/cajal.htm Brief overview of Cajal's career]

<br clear=all>
{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1901-1925}}

{{Persondata
|NAME= Cajal, Santiago Ramón y
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= Spanish neuroscientist
|DATE OF BIRTH= May 1, 1852
|PLACE OF BIRTH= Aragon, Spain
|DATE OF DEATH= October 17, 1934
|PLACE OF DEATH= Madrid, Spain
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramón y Cajal, Santiago}}


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