Women Scientists

Rita Levi-Montalcini 1909-

At a glance:

Nobel prize winning Italian discoverer of nerve growth factor

Born into an intellectual Jewish family in Turin, Levi-Montalcini read medicine against her father's wishes. Her twin sister became a famous Italian artist and her brother, a celebrated architect. She had just embarked on an academic career when Mussolini banned non Ayryan citizens from practising science and medicine. She built a secret lab in her bedroom. Later, when bombing forced many to leave, she rebuilt her lab in a dining room in the hills. She worked on the development of the nervous system which required fertilised eggs, then almost impossible to obtain. After the war, she was invited to Washington where she remained for the next 30 years. She noticed tumours made embryonic nerve cells proliferate enormously. She eventually isolated the factor that caused this - nerve growth factor - from salivary glands. This work paved the way for explosion of interest in growth factors and has been of great importance in understanding tissue regeneration and cancer growth. She and Stanley Cohen received the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986. She is the oldest living laureate and a senator for life in the Italian Senate.
Rita Levi-Montalcini

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Comments

Here is what people are saying about Rita Levi-Montalcini:

from jhansi durbhaka (6:27 22/04/2009)
a great rolemodel for us to follow and carry the message of serving the mankind taking even risk to life, through knowledge.woman is not merely the first teacher to any man but also a saviour as well. many returns of the day to you madameritalevi montacini.

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