Rita Levi-Montalcini: the neurologist who challenged fascism

Abstract

Rita Levi-Montalcini was a researcher in the field of neuroscience, Italian and Jewish in origin, who discovered the nerve growth factor and rightfully earned the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, alongside her collaborator Stanley Cohen. She was persecuted by the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and experienced gender and religious discrimination throughout her entire life. Despite these obstacles, she carried out her activities with diligence and grace, becoming a role model in the field. This paper reviews the life and career of Rita Levi-Montalcini.

Giuseppe Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, and Lessico Famigliare (Family Lexicon): a seminal figure in the history of neuron cell biology and histology seen through his daughter's literary eyes

“…Further studies on neurons and hibernation, 9 hippocampi, 10 11 and sensory ganglia followed; he theorized on the correlation of neuronal size and an animal's size. 12 Following appointments to the universities of Sassari and Palermo, Levi earned a professorship in Turin in 1919, 1 soon gathering a remarkable group of students, including future Nobel laureates Salvador Luria (1912–1991), Renato Dulbecco (1914–2012), and Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012); 1 13 despite the surnames, Levi and the latter had no familial connections. His career suffered greatly under fascism and the Second World War; he and his family first saught shelter in Liège before returning to Italy.…”