Spanish presentation

1. COL·LEGI PARE MANYANET -
BARCELONA
SPANISH SCIENTISTS

2.  Santiago Ramón y Cajal
 Severo Ochoa
 Joan Oró

3.  Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born
in Petilla de Aragón on 1st May,
1852.
 He studied medicine at the
university of Zaragoza, and he
also went to the university of
Barcelona.
 He was a Spanish pathologist,
histologist, neuroscientist and he
won a Nobel Award.
 Santiago went to the compulsory
(at that time) military service.

4.  He focused on the pathology of
inflammation, the microbiology of
cholera, and the structure of
Epithelial cells and tissues at the
University of Zaragoza.
 When he went to Barcelona he made
extensive studies of neural material
of many species and most major
regions of the brain.
 Ramón y Cajal made several
contributions to neuroanatomy.
 He discovered the axonal growth
cone, and he demonstrated that the
relationship between nerve cells was
not continuous but contiguous.This
provided a lot of evidence for the
Neuron Doctrine.

5.  Cajal proved the histological and functional individuality of nerve
cells. He also proved how the nervous stream flowed through the
cell and how they communicated with each other: by contiguity,
and not by continuity.This theory put an end to the reticularist
theory that prevailed in the medical world. Likewise, he
discovered the synapses, a form of neuron connection.

6.  He discovered a new type of cell to be named after him: the
interstitial cell of Cajal.This cell is found interleaved among
neurons embedded within the smooth muscles lining the gut,
serving as the generator and pacemaker of the slow waves of
contraction that move material along the gastrointestinal tract,
vitally mediating neurotransmission from motor nerves to smooth
muscle cells.

7.  -The neurons are used to
communicate information to the
brain and among them, they also
create paths with each other, and
because of that we can remember
a lot of things. If he hadn’t
discovered them, we wouldn’t
know about some illnesses like:
Alzheimer, Parkinson and ELA.
 -Cajal’s interstitial cells:These cells
are used to generate an activity or
system like a “pacemaker” for the
intestinal muscle and they are also
used to serve synapses or to make
a bridge between the terminations
of the autonomic nervous system
and the smooth muscle cells of the
intestine.

8.  Severo Ochoa was born in Luarca (Asturias), Spain. His father was
Severo Manuel Ochoa, a lawyer and a businessman, and his
mother was Carmen de Albornoz. Ochoa was the nephew of
Alvaro de Albornoz (President of the Second Spanish Republic
that was exiled, 1947–1951), and a cousin of the poet and literary
poet and critic Aurora de Albornoz. His father died when Ochoa
was seven, and he and his mother moved to Málaga, where he
attended elementary school through high school. His interest in
biology was stimulated by the publications of the Spanish
neurologist and Nobel laureate Santiago Ramón y Cajal. In 1923,
he went to the University of Madrid Medical School, where he
hoped to work with Cajal, but Cajal retired. He studied with father
Pedro Arrupe, and Juan Negrín was his teacher.

9.  Ochoa was the scientist who managed to
close the Krebs cycle.The Krebs cycle is a
central metabolic pathway in living
organisms that carry out cellular
respiration.
 The Krebs cycle is not only an energy
function, but also provides the precursors
for the synthesis of various amino acids .
Ochoa enzymes are produced during the
Krebs cycle itself. Its importance in the
process lies in the oxidation reaction of
these enzymes , which depend on the
energy charge of the cell, it produces
compounds that are used to direct the
processes of oxidative phosphorylation,
leading to Ochoa to develop his major
research on the genetic code.

10.  He decided to continue his investigations about
the oxidative phosphorylation.
 So he discovered a new enzyme, the enzyme is
called ‘polynucleotide phosphorylase’, it can
synthesize RNA in a test tube.
 The oxidative phosphorylation consists in a
metabolic way which uses the left energy of the
process of the oxidation of the proteins in the
nutrients to, using the fatty acids and glucose, to
produceATP(energy), H20 (water) and
CO2(carbon dioxide).
 The synthesizing of the RNA, out of the cell
consists in an enzyme isolated of the
microorganism AzotobacterVinelandii catalyzes
the synthesis of highly polymerized
orthophosphate releases polynucleotides.
 The discovery of that enzyme (polynucleotide
phosphorylase) caused the preparation of the
synthetic polynucleotide of a different
composition, with which Ochoa finally could
finish his investigation about the RNA and this
investigation made him win the Nobel Prize of
Medicine in 1959.

11.  The contribution of Severo Ochoa is concentrated in
different works that developed the earlier findings
and ideas that are related to the decoding of the
genetic code, the intracellular protein biosynthesis
and fundamental aspects of virus’ biology.

12. RNA
 RNA is the one that makes the protein
synthesis and is in charge of
transporting the DNA to the ribosomes.
Therapy with RNA
 The use of RNA molecules in the
therapy of certain diseases surge as
alternative for solving some problems
of traditional gene therapy.The recent
advances in understanding the biology
of RNA, as the discovery of the process
of RNA interference (RNAi), have
allowed the investigation of the
possibilities of RNA as a therapeutic
molecule of certain genetic diseases.

13.  Joan Oró i Florensa was born in Lleida on 26 October 1923,
and died in Barcelona on 2nd September, 2004.
 Since early childhood he was interested in the human’s role
in the universe, and in 1947 he graduated from chemistry at
the university of Barcelona.
 In 1952 he moved to the United States, where he graduated
from biochemistry at Houston University in 1955.
 His doctoral thesis studied the metabolism of formic acid in
animal tissue. He also made important studies on existing
organic compounds in terrestrial sediments, meteorites
and samples from the Moon.
 From 1963 he worked in several research NASA space
projects, as the Apollo project for the analysis of rocks and
other material samples from the moon, and theViking
program for the development of an instrument for the
molecular analysis of the atmosphere and the raw surface
of Mars.
 In 1980 he came back to Catalonia to collaborate in new
energy development plans and study alternative energy
sources.

14.  One of his most important contributions was the prebiotic synthesis of the nucleobase adenine (a
key component of nucleic acids) from hydrogen cyanide (HCN). He also showed that amino acids can
be made from HCN plus ammonia in an aqueous solution.This was achieved between 1959–1962
and stands, together with the Miller-Urey experiment, as one of the fundamental results of pre-
biotic chemistry. It opened up a research area eventually leading to the complete synthesis of other
components of nucleic acids.
• Oró wrote in his book,The origin of life: “Some of the
pre-biotic process are reproducible, and it’s been found
that the aqueous or liquid medium is most suitable for
development. So it is almost certain that life sprang up in
what has been called primary sea or primitive ocean. “
• Joan Oró was one of the pioneers of the theory of
panspermia as a cause of the origin of life on our planet.
The theory of panspermia said that the organic matter
that gave rise to life could reach Earth in comets that hit
on the primitive Earth. In his research he developed a
scheme that goes from the first thermonuclear
transformations to the beginning of life in our planet.

15.  Studying the origin of life, Joan Oró showed that hydrogen cyanide (HCN)* was a
molecule that could easily provide laboratory nitrogenous bases of DNA, like
adenine and guanine.
 In 1961 he got the artificial synthesis of adenine, from a mixture of hydrogen
cyanide and ammonia added to water. Later, he added to his basic mixture
formaldehyde and found the ribose and deoxyribose, also components of nucleic
acid sugars. In addition to these compounds, he also obtained a mixture of amino
acids and polypeptides of great biological interest.
* Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a molecule consisting of
three atoms that was found in the interstellar medium
and one that provided abundant components on Miller's
experiment.
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN)
Ammonia (NH3)
Formaldehyde (CH2O)

16.  He was also the first scientist pointing towards comets as key carriers of organic
molecules to our early biosphere.This conjecture (formulated in 1961) is largely
accepted today. Although such idea had been around for a long time, it was only
when both space exploration and pre-biotic chemistry were fully developed that
extensive evidence was in place.
Comets are known to be rich in
carbon and water, bearing along
precursor molecules based on carbon
chemistry such as amino acids. In this
context, in 1971 Oró and co-workers
published a paper revealing the high
abundance of Amino-acids, aliphatic
and aromatic hydrocarbons in the
Murchison meteorite.
Murchison meteorite

17.  If Joan Oró had never made these two theories, we wouldn’t have
known about Adenine and its use in DNA and RNA, and thanks to
Joan Oró we can make new theories about the origin of life and we
have more ideas about how life was created.