What did rita levi-montalcini discover

Biographies

Rita Levi-Montalcini (b.

Grillo rita levi montalcini biography wikipedia Rita Levi-Montalcini — was a Nobel Prize-winning neurologist who discovered and studied the Nerve Growth Factor, a critical chemical tool the human body uses to direct cell growth and build nerve networks. Born into a Jewish family in Italy, she survived the horrors of Hitler's Europe to make major contributions to research on cancer and Alzheimer's disease. She was the youngest of four children from a well-to-do Italian Jewish family led by Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer, and Adele Montalcini, a painter. As was the custom in the early 20th century, Adamo discouraged Rita and her sisters Paola and Anna from entering college. Adamo felt that the "woman's role" of raising a family was incompatible with creative expression and professional endeavors.

)

Neurophysiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with biochemist Stanley Cohen for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein that causes developing cells to grow by stimulating surrounding nerve tissue.

Their research, conducted in the s, while members of the faculty of Washington University, is of fundamental importance to the understanding of cell and organ growth and plays a significant role in understanding cancers and diseases such as Alzheimer&#;s and Parkinson&#;s.

Born into an intellectual, though traditional, family in Turin, Italy, Rita Levi-Montalcini had to overcome her father&#;s objections to her enrolling in college.

She entered the University of Turin to study medicine, despite her father&#;s belief that women should not pursue careers. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Turin Medical School in , and then completed a degree for specialization in neurology and psychiatry in Fascist laws prevented Italian Jews from practicing medicine or working in universities at that time, so Levi-Montalcini set up laboratory equipment in her bedroom to continue her research on neurogenesis.

When the family was forced to leave Turin in due to the heavy Allied bombing of the city, Levi-Montalcini rebuilt her laboratory in the family&#;s country cottage. When the Germans invaded Italy in the fall of , the family moved to Florence where they lived underground until the end of the war. After Allied armies forced the Germans out of Florence in August , Levi-Montalcini worked as a medical doctor in an Italian refugee camp, treating epidemics of infectious diseases and abdominal typhus.

After the war, her family returned to Turin and Levi-Montalcini resumed her position as an assistant at the University of Turin Institute of Anatomy.

Grillo rita levi montalcini biography Neurophysiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with biochemist Stanley Cohen for their discovery of nerve growth factor NGF , a protein that causes developing cells to grow by stimulating surrounding nerve tissue. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Turin Medical School in , and then completed a degree for specialization in neurology and psychiatry in Fascist laws prevented Italian Jews from practicing medicine or working in universities at that time, so Levi-Montalcini set up laboratory equipment in her bedroom to continue her research on neurogenesis. When the Germans invaded Italy in the fall of , the family moved to Florence where they lived underground until the end of the war. After Allied armies forced the Germans out of Florence in August , Levi-Montalcini worked as a medical doctor in an Italian refugee camp, treating epidemics of infectious diseases and abdominal typhus.

Two articles that Levi-Montalcini had published in foreign scientific journals interested Viktor Hamburger, head of the Zoology Department of Washington University in St. Louis. In September Rita Levi-Montalcini accepted Hamburger&#;s invitation to collaborate with him as a research associate. Though she initially planned to stay at Washington University for less than one year, Levi-Montalcini stayed for thirty years.

She was named an associate professor of Zoology in , and a full professor in In the early s Levi-Montalcini began dividing her time between St. Louis and Italy.

Grillo rita levi montalcini biography images

Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini was born into an intellectual, though traditional, family in Turin, Italy in At the age of twenty, realizing that she could not fulfill the feminine role envisioned by her father, Levi-Montalcini persuaded him to allow her to enter the University of Turin to study medicine. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Turin Medical School in , and then completed a degree for specialization in neurology and psychiatry in Two of her university colleagues and friends, Salvador Luria and Renato Dulbecco, also were to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in and respectively. All three were trained in biological science by the famous Italian histologist, Giuseppe Levi.

She established a laboratory at the Higher Institute of Health in Rome, which participated in a joint research program with Washington University from to In she established the Laboratory of Cell Biology of the Italian National Research Council in Rome, serving as its director until , and then as guest professor.

In the mids the Washington University Zoology Department was incorporated into the Biology Department. Levi-Montalcini retired as professor emeritus of Biology in

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Levi-Montalcini has received many honors and awards.

In she was the first woman scientist to receive the Max Weinstein Award, given by the United Cerebral Palsy Association for outstanding contributions in neurological research.

Rita levi montalcini died in Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in in Turin, Italy, and studied medicine at the University of Turin, where she learned the systems and research methods that accompanied her throughout her life. During World War II she stayed in Italy with her family, continuing her research in primitive working conditions. When the war ended she was invited to work at Washington University in St. Louis, where she remained for 26 years. At WashU she discovered Nerve Growth Factor, which is responsible for the development and distribution of nerve cells.

In Levi-Montalcini became the first woman to be installed in the Pontifical Scientific Academy. She is a recipient of the International Feltrinelli Medical Award of the Accademia Nazionale die Lincei, Rome (), the William Thomson Wakeman Award of the National Paraplegia Foundation (), the Lewis S. Rosentiel Award for Distinguished work in Basic Medical Research of Brandeis University (), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University (), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (), and the National Medal of Science ().

She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences of Italy. In , the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations named Rita Levi-Montalcini one of its first four FAO Ambassadors, to help in its campaign against world hunger.

Back to Top