Camillo Golgi

In 1877, he married Lina Aletti, the niece of Giulio Bizzozero. The couple had no children, and adopted Golgi's niece Carolina (now Mrs. Carolina Golgi-Papini).

His publications are anthologised in Opera Omnia that appeared in four volumes (first three in 1903, fourth volume in 1929).

Camillo Golgi died in Pavia, Italy, on 21 January 1926 and was buried in the Monumental Cemetery of Pavia (viale San Giovannino).

Camillo Golgi was born on 7 July 1843 in the village of Corteno, in the province of Brescia (Lombardy) in northern Italy. The village is now called Corteno Golgi after his name. His father was a doctor and district medical officer in Brescia.

He studied medicine at the University of Pavia. He was an intern at the Institute of Psychiatry directed by Cesare Lombroso.

While working in the laboratory of experimental pathology under Giulio Bizzozero, a professor of histology and pathology, Golgi got interested in experimental research and histological techniques.

In 1865, he graduated from the University of Pavia. He was a student when the fight for independence was going on in Italy.

After graduating, he continued to research in Pavia at the Hospital of St. Matteo. During this time, his research was mostly concentrated on the nervous system.

In 1872, he had to stop his academic research and joined the Hospital of Chronically Ill (Pio Luogo degli lncurabili) in Abbiategrasso as a chief medical officer. In a small kitchen cum laboratory, Golgi started his experiments of staining nervous tissue using mainly silver.

In 1873, he published a short note describing his observation of the elements of the nervous tissue. The note was named 'On the structure of the brain grey matter' and was published in the ‘Gazzetta Medica Italiana’.

In 1875, Golgi published the first drawings of neural structures as revealed by the ‘Golgi stain’ in an article on the olfactory bulbs.

In 1878 Golgi discovered the tendinous sensory corpuscles that are later named Golgi tendon organs.

Camillo Golgi’s most important work was the discovery of ‘black reaction’ or ‘reazione nera’ (later known as ‘Golgi’s stain’) which is a method of staining nervous cells with the use of silver nitrate. The subsequent reaction allowed him to see the paths of nerve cells in the brain for the first time. In addition, his discovery of Golgi apparatus was a real advancement in cell biology and makes him the most frequently cited scientist in cytology. Its existence confirmed in the mid-1950s by the use of the electron microscope. The Golgi apparatus plays an important role in the intracellular sorting, trafficking and targeting of proteins.