Rita levi montalcini biography of william shakespeare for kids

From until her death, she also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life.

Rita Levi-Montalcini, William Shakespeare, Barbra Streisand, I.M. Pei, Harper Lee, Jerry Seinfeld, and Kirsten Dunst were all born in April!

During World War II she set up a laboratory in her bedroom in Turin and studied the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos, discovering that nerve cells die when they lack targets, and laying the groundwork for much of her later research. When the Germans invaded Italy in September , her family fled south to Florence , where they survived the Holocaust , under false identities, protected by some non-Jewish friends.

This period highlighted her resilience and commitment to medical science despite the tumultuous circumstances. Upon returning to Turin in , she resumed her research activities. Louis ; he was interested in two of the articles Levi-Montalcini had published in foreign scientific journals. It was there that, in , she did her most important work: isolating nerve growth factor NGF from observations of certain cancerous tissues that cause extremely rapid growth of nerve cells.

Their publication in [ 27 ] became the first definitive indication of the protein. By transferring pieces of tumours to chick embryos, Montalcini established a mass of cells that was full of nerve fibres. The discovery of nerves growing everywhere like a halo around the tumour cells was surprising. When describing it, Montalcini said it is: "like rivulets of water flowing steadily over a bed of stones.

But nerves did not grow into the arteries, which would flow from the embryo back to the tumour. This suggested to Montalcini that the tumour itself was releasing a substance that was stimulating the growth of nerves. Her research led to the seminal publication "In vitro experiments on the effects of mouse sarcomas and 37 on the spinal and sympathetic ganglia of the chick embryo" in , which was a foundational work in identifying and understanding nerve growth factor NGF.

This discovery paved the way for future research in neurobiology and had profound implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases.