Scientist Stories: Rita Levi-Montalcini, Discovering Nerve Growth Factor & Surviving WW2

Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 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 1950s while members of the faculty of Washington University, was of fundamental importance to the understanding of cell and organ growth and played a significant role in understanding cancers and diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Levi-Montalcini has received many honors and awards. In 1963 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. In 1975 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 (1969), the William Thomson Wakeman Award of the National Paraplegia Foundation (1974), the Lewis S. Rosentiel Award for Distinguished work in Basic Medical Research of Brandeis University (1982), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University (1983), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1986), and the National Medal of Science (1987). 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.

With her sister Paolo, Rita Levi-Montalcini established the Rita Levi-Montalcini Onlus Foundation, which focuses on educating young African women by providing study fellowships. In 1999, 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. In August 2001 she was appointed as senator for life by the then President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Levi-Montalcini is a founder and currently president of EBRI (European Brain Research Institute) which was established in 2002 to study the central nervous system – from the neurons to the whole brain – in health and diseases. Levi-Montalcini is currently the oldest living Nobel laureate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Le...

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