Ramón y Cajal, Santiago (1852–1934)

Spanish cell biologist and anatomist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1906 for the discovery of the fine structure of the nervous system. Cajal's research revealed that the nervous system is based on units of nerve cells (neurons).

Ramón y Cajal was born in Petilla de Aragón, studied at Zaragoza, and then joined the army medical service. He was professor at Valencia in 1884–87, at Barcelona in 1887–92, and at Madrid in 1892–1921. In 1900 he became director of the new Instituto Nacional de Higiene, and in 1921 of the Cajal Institute in Madrid, founded in his honour.

Cajal demonstrated that the axons of neurons end in the grey matter of the central nervous system and never join the endings of other axons or the cell bodies of other nerve cells – findings indicating that the nervous system is not a network. In 1897 he investigated the human cerebral cortex, described several types of neurons, and demonstrated that structure might be related to the localization of a particular function to a specific area. Within the cell body he found neurofibrils in 1903, and recognized that the cell body itself was concerned with conduction.

His books include Structure of the Nervous System of Man and other Vertebrates (1904) and The Degeneration and Regeneration of the Nervous System (1913–14).