- Born
- Died
- Rita Levi-Montalcini was born on April 22, 1909 in Turin, Italy. She died on December 30, 2012 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- ParentsAdamo LeviAdele Montalcini
- RelativesPaola Levi- Montalcini(Sibling)Gino Montalcini(Sibling)
- Her parents were Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and mathematician, and Adele Montalcini, a painter.
- Her twin sister Paola Levi-Montalcini (1909-2000) became a famous painter in Italy.
- In 1986, Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini and her colleague, Dr. Stanley Cohen (b. 1937), won the Nobel Prize in medicine for the discoveries of NGF (nerve growth factor), a substance found in malignant tumors that causes nerve fibers to grow rapidly, and of EGF (epidermal growth factor), which is used in the treatment of severe burns.
- Older brother Gino was a well-known Italian architect and a professor at the University of Turin.
- Graduated in 1936 from medical school with a summa cum laude degree in Medicine and Surgery, and enrolled in the three year specialization in neurology and psychiatry. That same year, Benito Mussolini issued laws prohibiting non-Aryan Italian citizens from indulging in academic or professional careers; Rita's family had to seek work that would spare them from persecution. Rita wanted to continue her medical research, so she built a small research unit in her bedroom.
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