Santiago Ramón y Cajal was the first to describe the nervous system, including neurons, in exquisite detail. His original drawings, as well as information about current NIH neuroscience, are on exhibit in NIH Building 35, the Porter Neuroscience Center.
How medical researchers study diseases, by answering three basic questions. Focuses on Dr. Roscoe Brady's team at NINDS and their work with Gaucher disease.
Formally titled “Rewriting the Book of Nature: Charles Darwin and the Rise of Evolutionary Theory,” the exhibit describes the Charles Darwin’s life and the fortunes of the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Dr. Joseph Goldberger discovered of the cause of pellagra, a disease that killed many poor Southerners in the early part of the 20th century. His finding, that pellagra was caused by a diet deficient in vitamin B, was meant by politicial and social resistance.
Martin Rodbell and his colleagues discovered a mechanism that transformed our understanding of how cells respond to signals. In a series of pioneering experiments conducted at the NIH, Rodbell studied hormones--substances which have specific effects on cells' activity. He won the 1994 Nobel Prize for this work.
In the 1950s, the NIH's Dr. Robert Bowman developed a sensitive instrument called the spectrophotofluorometer, or “SPF”, that allowed scientists to use fluorescence as a way to identify and measure tiny amounts of substances in the body. This exhibit explores the instrument and its use in scientific studies ranging from anti-depressant medication to AIDS research and the Human Genome Project.
