Levi-Montalcini, Rita, 1909-2012

Rita Levi-Montalcini OMRI OMCA (US: /ˌleɪvi ˌmoʊntɑːlˈtʃiːni, ˌlɛv-, ˌliːvi ˌmɒntəlˈ-/,[3][4] Italian: [ˈriːta ˈlɛːvi montalˈtʃiːni]; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF).[5] From 2001 until her death, she also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life.[6] This honor was given due to her significant scientific contributions.[7] On 22 April 2009, she became the first Nobel laureate to reach the age of 100,[8] and the event was feted with a party at Rome's City Hall.[9][10] Levi-Montalcini was born on 22 April 1909 in Turin,[11] to Italian Jewish parents with roots dating back to the Roman Empire.[12][13][14] She and her twin sister Paola were the youngest of four children. While she was at the University of Turin, the neurohistologist Giuseppe Levi sparked her interest in the developing nervous system.[8] After graduating summa cum laude M.D. in 1936, Montalcini remained at the university as Levi's assistant, but her academic career was cut short by Benito Mussolini's 1938 Manifesto of Race and the subsequent introduction of laws barring Jews from academic and professional careers.

Levi-Montalcini lost her assistant position in the anatomy department after a 1938 law barring Jews from university positions was passed When the Germans invaded Italy in September 1943, her family fled south to Florence, where they survived the Holocaust, under false identities, protected by some non-Jewish friends.[24] During the Nazi occupation, Levi-Montalcini was in contact with the partisans of the Action Party.[25] After the liberation of Florence in August 1944, she volunteered her medical expertise for the Allied health service. Her family returned to Turin in 1945. Levi-Montalcini earned a Nobel Prize along with Stanley Cohen in 1986 in the physiology or medicine category. The two earned their Nobel Prizes for their research in to the nerve growth factor (NGF), the protein that causes cell growth due to stimulated nerve tissue.[41] On 1 August 2001, she was appointed as Senator for Life by the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.[11]