Edoardo Storti (1909–2006)

Edoardo Storti was born in Corteolona (Pavia) on 18 April 1909. He carried out university studies at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pavia, from where graduated ‘cum laude’ in 1932. During these years he had been an internal student in the Institute of Comparative Anatomy, directed by Edoardo Zavattari, and then in the Institute of Clinical Medicine, directed by Adolfo Ferrata.

Professor Ferrata was the founding father of Hematology in Italy. He elaborated the so-called ‘nonlineage theory of Ferrata’, in which for the first time he used the term ‘hemocytoblast’ to indicate a cell capable of generating all the cells of the blood. His second fundamental contribution was the ‘hemohistioblastic theory’, concerning the presence in bodily tissues of a primitive, undifferentiated and totipotent mesenchymal cells.

After graduation, Storti was appointed as assistant in clinical medicine and at Ferrata's death in 1946, became senior assistant at the Institute of Medical Pathology at the University of Pavia, directed by Giuseppe Pellegrini. Storti spend long periods abroad in Germany, at the University of Frankfurt and of Gottingen, and then in France at the University of Paris.

In 1951, Storti became professor of Medical Pathology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Modena until 1969, when the Faculty of Medicine in Pavia called him to direct the Institute of Medical Pathology. From 1971 to 1979 he directed the Institute of Clinical Medicine and was President of the Italian Society of Hematology from 1973 to 1976. Storti directed ‘Haematologica’, the journal which had been founded by Ferrata back in 1920 and which has represented one of the most powerful vehicle for disseminating hematological knowledge in Italy, from 1973 to 1989.

In 1946, Storti published a monograph entitled ‘Malattie del sangue’ under the names of Ferrata and Storti and a second Italian edition appeared in 1958 under the names of Storti and Mauri.

Storti's scientific activity was dedicated to the study of avian and murine leukemias showing the analogies with human leukemias; to the recognition of the neoplastic nature of these hematopoietic conditions; to the application of cytochemical techniques to both normal and pathological blood cells; to the classification of two much debated and unclarified topics in hematology, myelofibrosis and aplastic anemia; to the study of autologous bone marrow transplantation following intense chemotherapy; to the introduction of synovectomy for the treatment of recurrent hemophilic hemarthroses.