1. San Antonio (TX) March 4th, 2008
39th ASN annual meeting
W03 Workshop on History of Neurochemistry: Looking to the Past to Learn for the Future HISTORY OF NEUROCHEMISTRY: FROM THE PIONEERS TO TODAY, A GREAT TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION
Anne Boullerne, PhD
University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Anesthesiology
VA Medical Center, Chicago

2. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1702 Antonie van Leeuvenhoek (Dutch) sees the cell nucleus with a home-made microscope (275X magnification).
1791 Italians count Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani discover the electricity in frogs.
1808 Alexander von Humboldt (German) confirms that electricity is present in animal in the electric eel of South America.
1818 Mary Shelley (English) publishes the book “Frankenstein” started when she was 18 years old.
1830 Joseph Jackson Lister (English) develops the achromatic objective for microscope.
1833 Christian Ehrenberg (German) documents cells from the nervous system under a microscope.
1836 Robert Remak (German) sees a “medullary sheath” by teasing nerve fibers with a needle.

3. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1839 Theodor Schwann (German) formulates the “Cell Theory for Animal Bodies” in which the cell is the functional basic unit of all developing and adult organisms. Clash with the reticular theory.
1854 Rudolf Virchow coins the name “myelin” derived from Greek “myelos” (bone marrow) to name the white medullary sheath around nerves.
1856 Rudolf Virchow (German) coins the term “neuroglia” (glue in Greek) for glial cells because only neurons were visible.
Charles Darwin (English) publishes the book “On the origin of species”.
1860 Friedrich von Recklinghausen (German) reports a method using silver nitrate to stain tissue. First good stain for astrocytes.

4. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1861 Paul Broca (French) observes language disturbance linked to a brain lesion. First localization of a brain function.

5. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1871 Louis Ranvier (French) describes nodes regularly partitioning myelin in nerve fibers with the silver impregnation of Recklinghausen staining only axons.
1884 Johann Thudichum (German) presents the first comprehensive chemical composition of the brain.
1906 Ramon y Cajal (Spanish) and Camillo Golgi (Italian) share the Nobel prize for their discovery of neuron cell units in the nervous system.
Birth of the neuron theory with the terms axon and synapse.
Retina by Ramon y Cajal

6. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1921 Otto Loewi (German) discovers neurotransmission in the peripheral nervous system with acetylcholine. Nobel prize in 1936 and he emigrated in US in 1940.
1919 Rio-Hortega (Spanish) discovered microglia and oligodendrocytes with a new carbonate silver staining. He fled Spain in 1936 and emigrated to Argentina in 1940.
World War II. Active research in nuclear physic and in pharmacology for the army. Development of organic solvents for lipids.
1942 Ernst Klenk (German) isolated the complex lipid gangliosides.

7. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1951 Jordi Folch-Pi (Spanish) and Marjorie Lees (US) extracted the first myelin protein Proteolipid. Folch-Pi emigrated to US in 1936.
1952 Rita Levi-Montalcini (Italian) discovered Nerve Growth Factor. She emigrated to US in 1946 and won a Nobel prize in 1986.
1954 Betty Geren (US) showed PNS myelin is a spiral produced by Schwann cell by electron microscopy.
1954 Marthe Vogt (German) evidenced neurotransmission in the central nervous system for adrenaline and noradrenaline. She emigrated to England in Spur of modern pharmacology.
1957 Jordi Folch-Pi and Marjorie Lees published a method for lipid extraction from tissue.
1962 Richard Bunge (US) showed CNS myelin is also a spiral from oligodendrocyte by electron microscopy.

8. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1964 William Norton and Marian Kies independently purify myelin and identify its lipid composition.
1964 Elizabeth Roboz-Einstein and Marian Kies partially purified the myelin basic protein.
1971 Ed Eylar sequenced the basic myelin protein (MBP).
1971 Earl Sutherland won the Nobel prize for
cyclic AMP as second messenger of epinephrine: advent of transduction signaling.
1973 Richard Quarles identified the myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) with radioactive fucose.
Advent of the modern techniques mass spectroscopy, NMR, X-ray crystallography…

9. Use of isotopes in Neurochemistry
Starting in 1940’S
Labeling isotopes can be separated based on their mass using mass spectrometry. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) detects the isotopic differences, but also gives an indication of the position of the atom. Radioactive isotopes are used. The radiation emitted by compounds containing the radioactive isotopes darkens a piece of photographic film: autoradiograph of gel electrophoresis. X-ray crystallography is determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal. A beam of X-rays is scattered from the electrons within the crystal and produces a three-dimensional picture of the molecule.

10. Brief Chronology of Neuroscience
1980’s: Advent of cell biology and molecular biology
1971 Ed Eylar sequenced the basic myelin protein (MBP).
1986 James Kamholz and Robert Lazzarini cloned the human gene for MBP.
1969 Lawrence Eng discovered the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) from multiple sclerosis brain lesions.
1985 Lewis and Cowan published the cloning of the mouse GFAP gene.
1985 Hermona Soreq cloned the acetylcholinesterase gene in human brain.

11. 21th century in Neurochemistry
Gliotransmitters
Second messengers
Signaling pathways
Oxidative processes
microRNA
Proteomics
Lipidomics
Glycomics
Genomics

12. Start of Neurochemistry in 19th century
Johann Thudichum ( ) was the first pioneer of Neurochemistry. He published the first systemic molecular composition of the brain: “A treatise on the Chemical Constitution of the Brain” in 1884
He studied medicine and worked in the laboratory of chemist Justus von Liebig. The German physician later emigrated to England.
Among the molecules he described in the brain are cephalin, sphingomyelin, galactose, lactic acid and sphingosine.

13. Folch-Pi successor of Thudichum in 20th century
Jordi Folch-Pi ( ) He published in 1957 a chloroform-methanol procedure to extract lipids from tissue with Marjorie Lees. He became the leader in lipid chemistry and his procedure was the second most cited paper after the Lowry procedure to dose proteins.
He was born in Spain and emigrated to US in 1936.
He worked for 30 years at the McLean Hospital in Boston.
Over 30 trainees passed through his laboratory.

14. 1969 Foundation of the American Society for Neurochemistry by Jordi Folch-Pi and others. Francis LeBaron was the first president First meeting in Albuquerque (New Mexico).

15. Neurochemistry societies across the world
Japanese Society for Neurochemistry
JSN, founded in 1958

16. Neurochemistry societies across the world
International Society for Neurochemistry
ISN, founded in 1965
1958

17. Neurochemistry societies across the world
American Society for Neurochemistry
ASN, founded in 1969
1965
1958

18. Neurochemistry societies across the world
European Society for Neurochemistry
ESN, founded in 1976
1965
1969
1958

19. Neurochemistry societies across the world
Sociedad Argentina de Neuroquimica
SAN, founded in 1986
1965
1976
1969
1958

20. Neurochemistry societies across the world
Asian-Pacific Society of Neurochemistry
APSN, founded in 1992
1965
1976
1969
1958
1986

21. Neurochemistry societies across the world
1965
1976
1969
1958
1992
1986

22. Main journals in Neurochemistry
Journal of Neurochemistry founded in 1956
impact factor 4.26
Neurochemical Research founded in 1976
impact factor 2.14
Journal of Neuroscience research founded in 1975
impact factor 3.47
Molecular Neurobiology founded in 1987
impact factor 3.76

23. The first chief editor of the Basic Neurochemistry textbook was George Siegel, succeeded by Scott Brady.

24. END Thank you