El doctor Juan Noé y el nacimiento de la biología celular en Chile / Dr. Juan Noé and the birth of cell biology in Chile

Dr. Vicente Izquierdo San Fuentes was the first professor of Histology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile. In that Chair, cell theory strongly radiated to new generations of health students. However, the conditions for the creation of the discipline of General or Cell Biology were not yet ripe. Almost three decades later, Dr. Juan Noé Crevani was hired in Italy to lead Medical Zoology in 1912. From the heterogeneous discipline of Medical Zoology, Dr. Noé managed to create in 1926 the new chairs of General Biology, Embryology-Comparative Anatomy and Parasitology. His vision of biology as an essentially dynamic and experimental science, contributed to modernize and encourage the development of different areas of biology in Chile. Retaining their full independence, these chairs met in 1931, in a new organization called the Juan Noé Institute of Biology, which lasted until the university reform of 1968. Afterwards, the departments of Biology and Genetics, Parasitology, Human Anatomy and Histology were created. In 1998, a new reorganization of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile began, creating the so-called Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBM) that houses several disciplinary programs that replaced the old departments.

El arribo de la teoría celular a Chile: Dr. Vicente Izquierdo Sanfuentes / Dr. Vicente Izquierdo Sanfuentes and the arrival of the cellular theory in Chile

Vicente Izquierdo Sanfuentes was a leading physician, researcher and academic of the School of Medicine of the University of Chile in the period 1881-1912. Dr. Izquierdo began his medical training at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile (1872-1875) and then received a scholarship to continue his studies with the prominent researchers Wilhelm Hiss (1875-1877) at the University of Leipzig and Wilhelm Waldeyer at the University of Strasbourg (1877-1879) in Germany. After returning to Chile, he was appointed first professor of Histology (1881), initiating the first course of this subject in 1883. His main academic achievements and his foundational role in the origin and development of biology in Chile stand out in his work.