Rita levi-Montalcini
By Kylee Sifford
Early Childhood
Before and after World war ll
inspired by american embryologist Viktor Hamsburgers artical on nerve growth, Rita used her own techniques to trace nerve growth herself.she worked throughout the World war ll. Even when bombing forced Rita's family and herself to leave for the country side. But her life turned around when Hamsburgrer, seeing the papers Rita had published , invited her to Washington university in st. Louis, Missouri to share her finding with others
Professional Success
Rita Levi-Montalcini arrived in 1947 planning to stay for a short time , but she ended up be coming a professer at Washington university and holding dual citizen ship in the united states and in Italy.
She saw that a mouse tumor had spurred nerve growth after being grafted into a chicken embryo. A scientist who had no problems heeding her intuition, she adapted the experiment , placing the tumor so that it would only share the blood with a chicken embryo. She saw the same increased growth. After repeating the results with nerve tissue that she had cultivated in brazil, then she began working with other scientist to isolate a protein that promotes nerve growth in nearby developing cells.