historicwomen:

Rita Levi Montalcini 1909-2012

Italian neurologist, Rita Montalcini studied at the University of Turin and graduated in 1936. She was discouraged from education by her father, who believed women should only be wives and mothers. Rita refused to marry, much to the benefit of neurology. 

In 1938, people of Jewish heritage were banned from teaching or studying in Universities by Mussolini. Rita, who was Jewish, decided to continue studying by setting up a lab in her bedroom, using sharpened sewing needles as surgical instruments. She used a silver staining technique to chart nerve growth. Later she served as a doctor in a refugee camp at WWII’s end. 

In 1947, Rita traveled to the United States on invitation based on academic publishings she made. She became a professor in the country and received dual citizenship with the US and Italy. In the US, Rita would do work to  earn a Nobel Prize. Rita worked on a nerve growth factor of a chicken cell and a mouse cell. With her partner Stanley Cohen, Rita isolated the nerve growth factor. This discovery led to possible treatments of Alzheimer’s, infertility and cancer. This earned Rita the 1987 Nobel for medicine.

After achieving a Nobel, Rita moved to Rome where she established the Institute of Cell Biology. She conducted research everyday until her death in 2012.