How are you?
«Always negative. Today it is fashionable to answer like this ».
Gian Luigi Gessa is in the office heated by an air conditioner blowing hot air, on the second floor of the Department of Biomedical Sciences of Monserrato. On Wednesday, the pharmacologist-psychiatrist of the two worlds - he worked in the United States and in Italy - will celebrate ninety years by publishing a study on Frontiers in neuroscience , yet another career studded with successes and awards: "In my profession it is a precise method to evaluate if what you do makes sense, if your work is useful ».
The father of the drinking mice, the banner of a scientific community that has thrived in Italy and in the world, mixes memories, sharp judgments and plans for the future: «The only way not to grow old is to fall in love. I love research, so I stay young ».
When did the adventure in pharmacology begin?
"In 1956, a young graduate student, I went to ask for a thesis in the building of biological institutes in via Porcell number 4, an important street in Cagliari dedicated to an obscure anatomist from Barcelona while the scientist Bernardo Loddo is confined to an anonymous open space not far away".
Who did you submit the request to?
«To Professor William Ferrari, from Modena with a voice from Vasco Rossi. It was August, he welcomed me in clogs, shirts and underneath - it was said - nothing. It was available: "The thesis I give it to you, and I invite you to dinner with the rabbit curare", one of those used in the laboratory. I was perplexed, he guessed it: “What kind of pharmacologist are you? The rabbit intestine does not absorb curare, there is no risk ". On the large terrace on one side they cultivated opium, on the other there was the enclosure for dogs taken from the municipal kennel. I also studied them for my degree thesis entitled: "Does the pituitary gland directly influence the brain?" "
The relationship with the animal rights activists?
