Golgi, Camillo

Golgi, Camillo kämēlˈlō gôlˈjē [key], 1844–1926, Italian physician, noted as a neurologist and histologist. He shared with Ramón y Cajal the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on the structure of the nervous system. He introduced (c.1870) a method of staining nerve tissue with silver nitrate that he used (1883) to demonstrate certain nerve cells (Golgi cells) in the central nervous system. He observed (1909) the Golgi apparatus, a part of the cytoplasm distinguishable by special staining and known as the Golgi bodies when in the form of separate particles. He recognized that the three types of malaria are caused by different protozoan organisms. Golgi taught at the Univ. of Pavia from 1875.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Medicine: Biographies