Born in Turin[1] to a SephardicJewish family, together with her twin sister Paola she was the youngest of four children. Her parents were Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and gifted mathematician, and Adele Montalcini, a talented painter described by Levi-Montalcini as "an exquisite human being." She decided to go to medical school after seeing a close family friend die of cancer. Levi-Montalcini overcame the objections of her father - who believed that "a professional career would interfere with the duties of a wife and mother" - and enrolled in the Turin medical school in 1930, studying with Giuseppe Levi and graduating in 1936. She went to work as Levi's assistant, but her academic career was cut short by Benito Mussolini's 1938Manifesto della Razza and the subsequent introduction of laws barring Jews from academic and professional careers. During World War II, she conducted experiments from a home laboratory, studying the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos which laid the groundwork for much of her later research. Her first genetics laboratory was in her bedroom at her home. In 1943, her family fled south to Florence, and she set up a laboratory there also. Her family returned to Turin in 1945.
In September of 1946 Levi-Montalcini accepted an invitation to Washington University in St. Louis, under the supervision of Professor Viktor Hamburger. Although the initial invitation was for one semester, she stayed for thirty years. It was here that 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 in 1952. She was made a Full Professor in 1958, and in 1962 established a research unit in Rome, dividing the rest of her time between there and St. Louis.
From 1961 to 1969 she directed the Research Center of Neurobiology of the CNR (Rome), and from 1969 to 1978 the Laboratory of Cellular Biology.
Her twin sister Paola Levi-Montalcini, a popular artist, died in 2000.
On August 1, 2001 she was appointed senator for life[1] by the then President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. On April 28 and 29, 2006, Levi-Montalcini, aged 97, attended the opening assembly of the newly-elected Senate of Italy and appointment of the new Speaker, declaring her preference for the centre-left candidate Franco Marini. Levi-Montalcini, who is the senior member of the Upper House, chose not to be the temporary president on this occasion. She actively takes part in the Upper House discussions, unless busy in academic activities around the world. Due to her support of the government of Romano Prodi, she was often criticized by some right-wing senators, who accused her of "saving" the government when the government's exiguous majority in the Senate was at risk. She has been frequently insulted in public, and on blogs, since 2006, by both center-right senators such as Francesco Storace, and far-right bloggers for her age and Jewish origins.[3][4]
Levi-Montalcini is currently the oldest living laureate and also the longest-lived laureate.
In laboratory working with slides
Awards and honors
Levi-Montalcini in 2007
In 1968, she became the tenth woman elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
