Born: April 22, 1909, Turin, Italy
Rita Levi-Montalcini is an Italian biologist, born in Turin and educated at the University of Turin Medical School. She shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with American biochemist Stanley Cohen for their contributions to the understanding of growth factors (see Growth Factor) in human development. Levi-Montalcini was cited for her discovery of the factor that promotes the growth of cells in the peripheral nervous system. Cohen, her student, discovered epidermal growth factors. In 1947, she moved to the U.S.; she became a citizen in 1956.
