Levi-Montalcini, Rita (1909-2012), was an Italian and American biologist who did important research on cell growth. Her work won a share of the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, along with American biochemist Stanley Cohen .
Levi-Montalcini and Cohen discovered chemicals called cellular growth factors that promote and help regulate the growth of various kinds of cells. The Nobel committee cited Levi-Montalcini, in particular, for her discovery of a substance that stimulates the growth of nerve cells.
Levi-Montalcini was born on April 22, 1909, in Turin, Italy. She received an M.D. degree from the University of Turin in 1936 and began a career in neurological research. In 1939, Italy’s Fascist government barred Jews from academic or professional careers. Levi-Montalcini, who is Jewish, then carried on her research at a small laboratory in her home in Turin and at a country cottage in Piemonte, Italy. In 1943, during World War II, the German army invaded Italy. The German occupation put Levi-Montalcini in great danger. She fled to Florence and lived in hiding until the Germans left. In 1944 and 1945, she worked as a medical doctor caring for war refugees.
Levi-Montalcini moved to the United States in 1947 to teach and do research at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. There, she and Stanley Cohen carried out the studies that won the Nobel Prize. She became a U.S. citizen in 1956 and a professor at the university in 1958. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, she divided her time between St. Louis and Rome, where she had established a research unit. She also served as director of the Institute of Cell Biology of the Italian National Council of Research in Rome from 1969 to 1978. After retiring from Washington University in 1979, she returned to Italy to live and work. Levi-Montalcini held both Italian and U.S. citizenship. She died on Dec. 30, 2012, at the age of 103.
