Bizzozero, Giulio

Abstract Giulio Bizzozero (1846–1901) was an Italian pathologist, histologist and haematologist. He was the central figure of the modernisation of medical research and practice after the unification of Italy. A gifted researcher and teacher, a talented science manager and committed populariser and an institutional reformer, he profoundly influenced at least two generations of Italian physicians. He gained international recognition for his pioneering studies on the role of lymphocytes in tissue regeneration, on the haematopoietic function of the bone marrow, on platelets and their role in the processes of coagulation and thrombosis and for his classification of tissues according to their regenerative powers, whereas his important contributions revealing phagocytosis and his discovery of desosomes and of Helicobacter pylori were recognised only after his premature death. Key Concepts: Giulio Bizzozero was the central figure of the modernisation of medicine in Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century. Giulio Bizzozero established microscopy, histology and experimentalism in Italian medicine. Among the instruments he invented were a technique for observing circulating blood in vivo , a chromocytometer, a method to count the platelets in flowing blood and a method to quantify the amount of mitotic cells in tissues. Giulio Bizzozero pioneered the study of the connective tissue, of epithelioma formation and described in detail the role of mobile cells in the process of wound healing and regeneration. His haematological studies (haematopoiesis, the discovery of the platelets and their role in thrombosis) and his classification of tissues based on the amount of labile, static and perennial cells they contain earned him international recognition. The importance of his pioneering reports on phagocytosis and his description of Helicobacter and of desosomes were recognised only years after his death.