In 1906, Cajal and Camilo Golgi received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for making it possible to observe and document the anatomy of the nervous system in detail. <\/p>\n
As part of World Health Day<\/a>, which has been celebrated every 7th of April since 1950, we are going to remember one of the great figures in the sector in Spain, Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal (1852-1934).<\/p>\n Ram\u00f3n y Cajal\u2019s origins and childhood <\/p>\n Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal was born on 1 May 1852 in the Navarran town of Petilla de Arag\u00f3n. However, he was descended from Aragonese, as both his parents came from the Huesca municipality of Larr\u00e9s, where they moved when Cajal was two years old.<\/p>\n As he recounts in his book Memorias de mi vida<\/a> (Memoirs of My Life), he spent his childhood moving between numerous towns in the provinces of Huesca and Zaragoza due to his father\u2019s work as a surgeon. After studying in Jaca and Huesca, he ended up in the Aragonese capital to begin his studies in medicine, graduating in 1873 at the age of 21.<\/p>\n Professional career <\/p>\n In 1877, he completed his doctorate at the Central University of Madrid (one of the predecessors of the Complutense University) with a thesis entitled \u2018Pathogenesis of Inflammation\u2019, subsequently combining his medical work with teaching positions at universities in Valencia and Barcelona.<\/p>\n Between 1884 and 1888, he published his \u2018Manual of Histology\u2019 in instalments, before returning to Madrid in 1892 to take up the chair of Histology and Normal Histochemistry and Pathological Anatomy at the Central University of Madrid, which he would hold until his retirement in 1922.<\/p>\n Cajal School <\/p>\n In 1900, the modern Laboratory of Biological Research was created, as well as the Spanish Neurological School, an influential scientific group led by Ram\u00f3n y Cajal in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n This group, also known as the Cajal School, developed the neuron theory, establishing that the nervous system is made up of individual cells.<\/p>\n The importance of this work is such that these manuscripts, histological drawings, photographic plates and bibliographic material were inscribed in 2017 by UNESCO in the \u2018Memory of the World\u2019 register as World Heritage. Part of the archive is available at the Museum of Natural Sciences<\/a> in Madrid.<\/p>\n Ram\u00f3n y Cajal, father of modern neuroscience <\/p>\n Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal is often referred to as the \u2018father of modern neuroscience\u2019 due to his studies on microscopic anatomy, his observations on degeneration and regeneration, and his theories on the function, development, and plasticity of virtually the entire nervous system, as stated by the Spanish National Research Council<\/a> on its website.<\/p>\n The first cartographer of the brain <\/p>\n