Rita Levi-Montalcini, M.D.

Rita Levi-Montalcini, M.D.

Rita Levi-Montalcini was an Italian-Jewish neurologist and Nobel Laureate who made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of neurobiology. She was born in Turin, Italy, where she was raised in an intellectually stimulating environment by a culturally rich and educated Sephardic Jewish Family. Sephardic refers to Jews with roots in Spain and Portugal, also known as the Iberian Peninsula. Although she faced anti-Semitic laws that didn’t allow her to further pursue her academic and professional life during World War II, she made a home laboratory to continue her research, showing her commitment to science and the medical field.

Levi-Montalcini became one of the world’s leading scientists post-World War II, when she discovered the nerve growth factor alongside her collaborator, Stanley Cohen. This discovery was made while Levi-Montalcini was working in Vittorio Hamburger’s laboratory in St, Louis Missouri, where she resided for 30 years. This was a breakthrough in the study of cell development, and both Levi-Montalcini and Cohen were awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery. Throughout her life and work, Levi-Montalcini showed an extreme dedication to the study of neurobiology as well as the power of individual determination.