Google Doodle pays tribute to the inventor of Papanicola test Georgios Papanikolaou

The pioneering scientist Georgios Papanikolaou would have turned 136 on Monday. The researcher is honored with the Google Doodle of May 13, which celebrates his birthday – and his most important invention: Pap smear.

His methodology has opened a new field of medical study called "cytopathology" that examines the cells of the body to look for a disease.

Papanikolaou was only 15 years old when he entered the medical school. In 1910 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Munich and three years later emigrated to the United States with his wife, Andromahi Mavrogeni. The duo found a job at Cornell University as a researcher in the Department of Anatomy and began conducting work on cancers of the female reproductive system.

In 1928, he discovered that taking vaginal smears and examining them under the microscope made it possible to detect cancers. However, it was not until 1943 that this work was published.

Thanks to a special staining technique, Papanikolaou was able to study vaginal cell smears under a microscope. The test is simple and inexpensive and has been the basis of cervical cancer screening for decades. It can also be used to detect other diseases of the female reproductive system. Pap smear is still used worldwide for early detection of cancer, although recently, some countries, such as Australia, are using a method that no longer requires the creation of a drug. smears and instead examines one of the root causes of cervical cancer: human papillomavirus.

Papanikolaou has already figured on the stamps of the US Postal Service and appeared on the Greek Dracho 10,000 note from 1995 to 2001. The scribble of today presents the researcher who analyzes one of his famous smear.