The Explorer’s Guide to Biology (XBio)
Instituto Cajal – Noticias
Cajal’s Key Discovery of the Neuron
Juan de Carlos, Cajal Institute
Juan is a world authority on Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience. Juan received his PhD in Neurobiology from the University Autónoma of Madrid in 1986. His main research has been to elucidate fundamental mechanisms that regulate development of telencephalic structures, focusing on the cerebral mantle and the olfactory cortex. Juan is now the Head of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology at the Cajal Institute and the Curator of the Cajal Legacy.
Summary
What is the brain made of and how does it receive and process information? These questions inspired the young Spanish scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal in the late 19 th century. Equipped with a microscope and his artistic talent, Cajal created stunning drawings of the cells that make up the brain. His incredible power of observations led him to propose that information processing by the brain is performed by individual cells (called neurons), and he proposed a general mechanism for how information flows from neuron to neuron in the nervous system. Way ahead of his time, Cajal’s hypotheses were confirmed decades later. Cajal, winner of the Nobel Prize, is considered to be the “father of neuroscience,” and his work continues to inspire scientists today.
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