Home Cytometry History Individual Histories Giuliano Mazzini
Giuliano Mazzini
- Please tell us about a significant event or moment in Cytometry that you experienced, in a lab, at a conference, or at an informal gathering. Humorous anecdotes, historic photos, brochures, papers, etc, are also welcome.
The “Palazzo Botta” of Pavia is the historical building of the University of Pavia were Spallanzani and Golgi did their famous discoveries in the far past. Today it houses the majority of the Scientific Institutes and Departments of Sciences and Medical Faculties of the Pavia University. The evolution of “Histochemistry” to “Cytochemistry” and “Cytometry” have continued inside the building in the recent past. My fathers in science Maffo Vialli and Giovanni Prenna spent their life around the photometric and fluorometric techniques focussed mainly to DNA quantitation. I was just dropped inside the buiding as student when Prenna, back from the Seattle Meeting (1972), convinced me that “Pulse-Cytophotometry” would be the subject of my thesis work.- What do you feel was your major contribution to the field of Cytometry?
- We did a lot of methodological and instrumental improvements in the field of microfluorometry of the Feulgen reaction when DNA quantitation was a very hard job … Thanks to flow cytometry the life changed (better) and we still contribute both on the side of methodology and applications (cell proliferation) in cell biology as well as clinical fields.
- What drove you to this achievement?
- As I mentioned the “stream” of the story of our group in the area of “quantitative micro-techniques.”
- Why was it that your team was able to do it? Was it a special skill? Sudden insight?
- We had quite a good collaboration with other researchers in physics and electronics from Polytechnic of Milan (S. Cova, C.A. Sacchi) dealing with digital photon counting and advanced laser sources. Even with limited financial resources Giovanni Prenna was skillfull in getting a second-hand used (demo unit) “Cytofluorograph 4800A” flow cytometer … the first flow cytometer in Italy.
- Was someone else’s work or influence fundamental in driving your work? Please describe.
- In the Seattle Meeting, Prenna met Wolfgang Göhde. Immediately a frequent exchange of common interest turned a scientific relationship to a real friendship. Later in many occasions Wolfgang (always very close to my lab) did contribute with the Partec Company to support my instrumental facility.
- How do you think your work impacted the field of Cytometry?
- I don’t know how much… I did all my best, at least in my country, to train students and to the spread of the cytometric techniques in the bio-medical fields. As far as educational is concerned, I had been one the founding members of the Italian Society of Cytometry (GIC), one of the active and large societies in Europe.
Once transferred from family house (Botta-Adorno) to University (1885) a series of “metopes” representing science-symbols (including the “microscope”) was applied over the main entrance.
Palazzo Botta had been the place where Camillo Golgi made his famous discoveries (1885-1918).
The two precious amphitheatre teaching rooms of the building have been named in the memory of the two famous Scientists Lazzaro Spallanzani (1770) and Camillo Golgi (in the picture, the external view of the Golgi room).
The Partec PASII (1976) flow cytometer the first of a series of Partec flow cytometers operated at Botta till nowadays by Ennio Prosperi and Giuliano Mazzini thanks to some common research projects in cooperation with Wolfgang Göhde.
Figure of the historical Koritska microscope (1897) a company located in Milano active in building-up optical instruments since the second half of 1800.
In cooperation with Koritska company Sergio Perugini (1951-54) made the first histophotometer aimed to quantitate the primitive histochemical reactions.
Maffo Vialli, one of the founders of quantitative histochemistry, realized a variety of microphotometers in the two decades between 1950-70.
Figure from a mile-stone paper of Giuseppe Gerzeli dealing with microinterferometry as a tool for “dry-mass” determination (1955).
The emerging fluorescence histochemistry was going to replace “color-staining”: Giovanni Prenna did a lot of contributions (1960-70) in the study of “Shiff-type reagents”. In the figure some of his original derivatives (commercial drugs) still conserved in our lab.
Nucleated erythrocytes (bufo viridens) stained by Feulgen reaction using dehydro-thio-paratoluidine as a Shiff-type reagents (Prenna 1969).
Another example (frog erythrocytes) of Shiff-type reagent (BBT) of the Prenna’s lab. First application in flow cytometry by Isabel Freitas and Giuliano Mazzini (1975).
A “collection” of historical instrumentation operated at “Centro di Studio per l’Istochimica del CNR” from 1965 till nowadays. Many of these instruments improved and up-graded in electronics are still working at “Palazzo Botta.” In the figure the Leitz MPV1 equipped with both “photometric-capability” in transmitted light and the “micro-fluorometry” in incident illumination (1969).
From microfluorometry to laser cytometry … 1984”. Carlo A. Sacchi and Giovanni Bottiroli did a lot of work making different instrumental development dealing with the introduction of laser sources (even pulsed tunable lasers) in cytometry.
The Leitz “microspectrograph” operated both in absorption and fluorescence (1968) a foundamental instrument in the story of CNR Centre (continuosly up-graded is still operated in our lab by Bottiroli-Croce).
Among many improvements in microspectrofluorometry at Botta, very important had been the contributions by Sergio Cova (1974) dealing with the introduction of “single photon counting” as an innovative and sensitive method for signal detection. One of the first example of the introduction of “digital electronics” in cytometry.
The “Biophysic 4800A” the first flow cytometer in italy introduced (1971) by Prenna (as a demo unit bought in USA) and equipped with a 1024 Laben multichannel analizer.
- Giuliano Mazzini
- Centro Istochimica CNR
- Dipartimento Biologia Animale
- Università di Pavia
- Piazza Botta 10 27100 Pavia – Italy