Rita Levi-Montalcini

Italy
1909 - 2012

Background
Neurologist and Italian senator, born into a Jewish family. She
graduated with top honors from the Faculty of Turin. She set up
a laboratory in her room when Mussolini, in the
middle of World War II, decided to prohibit
Jews from practicing any career, academic or
professional. She was a professor,
opened a research unit in Rome, directed the
Center for Neurobiological Research in that city.

Studies
She studies in the Università degli Studi
di Torino in her hometown, where he
graduated in 1936 in medicine and
surgery with the degree of summa cum
laude. In 1943 she was expelled from the
University.

Curious fact

She fled several times from

different countries because at
that time Jewish people were not
allowed to study, but she did not
give up and turned her bedroom
into a small research center.

Contributions

She discovered growth factors (a

protein that keeps neurons healthy)
which allowed us to understand
medical conditions such as senile
dementia, tumors, deformities, etc.

Prizes

She received the Nobel Prize in

Physiology and Medicine in 1986, for
the discovery of nerve growth factors.

6 IM
Aguilar Ruiz Diego, Bazan Huerta Julieta, Gómez López Julieta Verónica, Pérez Bautista Monserrat. Quiterio Tlapalamatl Montserrat