Microglia
Research has discovered dystrophic (defective development) human microglia. "These cells are characterized by abnormalities in their cytoplasmic structure, such as deramified, atrophic, fragmented or unusually tortuous processes, frequently bearing spheroidal or bulbous swellings." The incidence of dystrophic microglia increases with aging. Microglial degeneration and death have been reported in research on Prion disease, Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, indicating that microglial deterioration might be involved in neurodegenerative diseases. A complication of this theory is the fact that it is difficult to distinguish between "activated" and "dystrophic" microglia in the human brain.
Jean Weigle
As a physicist he was awarded for his research on x-ray diffraction to the study of crystal structure; the effects of temperature on this diffraction; the diffraction of light by ultrasonics.
He was working as professor of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1920s.
At the University of Geneva he became director of the Institute of Physics in 1931. He developed the first electron microscope made in Switzerland, an important factor for the studies of molecular biology leading to creation in 1964 of the Institute of Molecular Biology (MOLBIO) in Geneva by Edouard Kellenberger and others.