Dr. De Robertis
A MAN OF SCIENCE
De Robertis scientific career started as soon as he entered medical school. Courses such as Anatomy and Histology captured our young scientist full attention, spending large periods of time learning the tissue preparation techniques and dissecting human cadavers in hospitals and morgues. By the end of his first year, he was invited by professor Pedro Rojas to enter as an intern at the Department of General Anatomy and Embryology, this event would definitely influence his later pursuits. During these early years at the laboratory, he also got in touch with other prominent and world-reknown scientists such as the biologist Francisco A. Sáez, and professors E. Frauré-Fremiet and A. Policard.
​
​
De Robertis and professor Pedro Rojas and Bernardo Houssay at e farewell dinner organized for De Robertis who was preparing for going to study abroad.
As years passed by, the General Anatomy and Embryology Institute became a reference point for histological and cellular research, and established a active communication with the already well-known Institute of Physiology, directed by the Argentinian physiologist and future Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Bernardo Houssay; it is during these years that De Robertis began to developed a close relationship with Dr. Houssay and his colaborators, such as Dr. Eduardo Braun-Menendez, Oscar Orías, Enrique del Castillo among others.
Left. B. Houssay, Medicine and Physiology Nobel Prize in 1947.
​
​
Center. Chilean-born Argentinian scientist Eduardo Braun-Menéndez.
​
​
Upper right. Francisco Alberto Sáez (June, 1921) at the Zoology Laboratory in the La Plata Museum.
​
​
Professor Albert Policard at his Laboratory.
KNOW?
Along De Robertis medical education he established life-long friendships with many world-renown figures of the scientific community, such as the friendship with B. Houssay, who would play a important role as a colleague and mentor, this letter of congratulations De Robertis wrote to Dr. Houssay shows us how close of a friendship this was and how much both men cared for the development of Argentinian sciences. Thanks to Archives of the Casa Museo Bernardo Houssay - FECIC you can read the full letter by click on the image to the right.
De Robertis and Houssay correspondence on October 25, 1947. Letter courtesy of the Bernardo Houssay Archives from the Casa Museo Bernardo Houssay - FECIC.
DID
YOU
DE ROBERTIS and the start of a brilliant career
After seven years of medical studies, which were completed with tremendous success – obtaining the highest grades of the whole class and a gold medal – he began his international career; De Robertis was awarded a series of scholarships that ensure him training in at Policard’s Laboratory in Lyon, France and then spend time in the most advanced cytology laboratories of his time in the United States of America. The rise of World War II put a temporary hold to his plans. After some re-planning, Eduardo De Robertis departed to the United States of America in October 1939, and arrived to the University of Chicago, Department of Anatomy under the direction of Professor Bensley, initially, and professor William Bloom later. During this period, De Robertis contributed with his research to understanding the secreting cycle of the thyroid gland, studies that would complement at the University of John Hopkins under Dr. I. Gersh; these studies allowed him later, in collaboration with the recently arrived Dr. Nowinski, to expand the knowledge on thyroid gland pathology. His works on the thyroid gland would give him world recognition, which translated into a number invitations to different universities to present his findings.​
​
Eduardo de Robertis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with his colleague and friend Dr. Stanley H. Bennett and Dr. Jerry Gross (1947).
DE ROBERTIS at MIT
De Robertis arrived in 1946 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a scholarship from the Guggenheim Foundation. It is at this point where he would be face to face with the newly introduced technology for the study of the cell’s ultrastructure: the electron microscope Armed with new technology he began working on the ultrastructure of the axon and discovered a tubular structure within sympathetic nerves that he named neurotubules. It is during this period of time that his Citologia General was translated into English receiving remarkable comments from the international scientific community.​
​
Eduardo de Robertis was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947 inthe field of Organismic Biology and Ecoology.
DE ROBERTIS' scientific work
In 1953, De Robertis received an invitation from professor H. Stanley Bennet to work together in Seattle at the Department of Anatomy in the University of Washington. Together they would make important observations regarding the structure of the nervous system such as the role of Schwann cells and the process of micropinocytosis in the sympathetic ganglion; but the research that resumes his efforts and hard work and becomes the pinnacle of his scientific career is the discovery of the synaptic vesicles as a key functional component of the synapse. This finding meant a paradigm shift in the ultrastructure of the nervous system by coupling the submicroscopic morphology of the neuron with the physiology of neural transmission.​
.jpg)
Papers published by De Robertis and Bennett 1954 (right) and 1957 (left) where the synaptic vescicles are described.
DE ROBERTIS and the Institute of General Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Buenos Aires
De Robertis returns to Buenos Aires in 1957, he was appointed Professor of Histology and Embryology and Director of the Institute of General Anatomy and Embryology. De Robertis arrives to the institute with a prestigious career and international recognition. At the same time, after eleven years working and learning in foreign lands, he returned to his alma mater equipped with novel techniques for the study of the cell's ultrastructure and new insights for approaching the study of the cell. It is during this period that the first electron microscope was acquired by the Institute. De Robertis started by asking different institutes, colleagues and universities for support in order to set up a research lab that can allow him and his collaborators continue with their scientific projects. It is during this period, in 1958, ​that he participates in the International Congress of Electron Microscope where he presented his work on glial cells and demonstrates the role of oligodendrocytes in myelin formation.
De Robertis at the Library of the Institute of General Anatomy and Embryology. With him in the picture the group of young collaborators that work with him. (c. 1962).
Dr. De Robertis
WRITINGS AND PUBLICATIONS
Published: September 1, 1953
Received: January 23, 1953
Published: May, 1954
Received: January 28, 1954
Published: January 25, 1955
Received: May 17, 1954
Published: May 25, 1956
Received: October 31, 1955
Published: July 25, 1957
Received: November 19, 1956
Published: September 25, 1958
Received: February 25, 1958
THE SUBMICROSCOPIC ORGANIZATION OF AXON MATERIAL ISOLATED FROM MYELIN NERVE FIBERS
E. D. Robertis, MD., and C.M. Franchi
Department of Cell Ultrastructure, Biological Sciences Research Institute
Montevideo, Uruguay
A SUBMICROSCOPIC VESICULAR COMPONENT OF SCHWANN
CELLS AND NERVE SATELLITE CELLS
E. D. Robertis and H.S. Bennett
Department of Anatomy, University of Washington
Seattle, Washington, USA
SOME FEATURES OF THE SUBMICROSCOPIC MORPHOLOGY OF
SYNAPSES IN FROG AND EARTHWORM
E. D. Robertis and H.S. Bennett
Department of Anatomy, University of Washington
Seattle, Washington, USA
ELECTRON MICROSCOPE OBSERVATIONS ON SYNAPTIC VESICLES
IN SYNAPSES OF THE RETINAL RODS AND CONES
E. D. Robertis, MD., and C.M. Franchi
Department of Cell Ultrastructure, Biological Sciences Research Institute
Montevideo, Uruguay
SUBMICROSCOPIC CHANGES OF THE NERVE ENDINGS IN THE ADRENAL MEDULLA AFTER STIMULATION OF THE SPLANCHNIC NERVE
E. D. Robertis and A.V. Ferreira
Department of Cell Ultrastructure, Biological Sciences Research Institute
Montevideo, Uruguay
CELLULAR MECHANISM OF MYELINATION IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
E. D. Robertis, ,MD., H.M. Gerschenfeld, MD., and F. Wald, MD.
Department of Medical Sciences, Institute of General Anatomy and Embryology
Buenos Aires, Argentina
CLICK ICON
TO READ
CLICK ICON
TO READ
CLICK ICON
TO READ
CLICK ICON
TO READ
CLICK ICON
TO READ
CLICK ICON
TO READ
THROUGH THE EYE PIECE
© 2022 Created by Through the Eyepiece Project sponsored by FENS with Wix.com