Cell theory states that the cell is the fundamental structural and functional unit of living matter. In 1839 German physiologist Theodor Schwann and German botanist Matthias Schleiden promulgated that cells are the “elementary particles of organisms” in both plants and animals and recognized that some organisms are unicellular and others multicellular. This theory marked a great conceptual advance in biology and resulted in renewed attention to the living processes that go on in cells.