The 102-year-old Nobelist still does science

There are people whose labor for them is not just a job for a living. Rita Levi-Montalcini, the story of the relentless hard work despite being a hundred years old, is an example.

At the end of the first decade of the last century (April 22, 1909) in the city of Turino, Italy, two twins were born in a Jewish family (Mr. Adamo Levi and Adela Montalcini) with 4 the child, 3 girls and 1 boy and the two girls are the youngest. Although his father was an electrical engineer and a mathematician, he considered 'the position of a daughter in the family ', so he did not take care of their studies, did not even want the girls. study too high school. Fortunately, his intention was not successful, because if done, Italy was missing a talented female artist (aunt) and humanity without an outstanding female scientist, making a great contribution to the knowledge treasure. (sister).

The two twin girls Paola and Rita appear to be the same as two drops of water, quite similar in fate, along with famous people, without regreting that they have chosen a single life for life, but their interests different.

While Paola was passionate about painting, Rita loved literature, her dream of becoming a Swedish writer and writer, Selma Lagerlf (Nobel Prize in Literature), was her idol. But when the family's closest tutor died of cancer, Rita changed her mind. She persuaded her parents to let her enter the medical school in her hometown.

Rita Levi-Montalcini, an outstanding doctor of medicine at the University of Turino in 1936 and an assistant in neurobiology for anatomy professor Giuseppe Levi (one The teacher was very knowledgeable, and there were three Nobel laureates - Salvador Luria - 1969, Renato Dulbeccco - 1975 and Levi-Montalcini - 1986) until 1938. When Mussolini came to power, he came out. a racist law, expelling Jews from universities and research institutes, Rita had to travel to Belgium to work for a year at the Brussels Institute of Neurology.

Later, in order to continue working on the study of the development of neurons in the chickens he was pursuing, Rita returned to Italy, turning her bedroom into a laboratory on the outskirts of the city and plying in it all day.

When Nazi Germany occupied northern Italy, Rita left his own research lab, though poor and inadequate but very successful, to join the anti-fascist resistance in Florence in the Allied Forces. .She joined the army as a military physician, aggressively where the battlefield treated wounded soldiers, extinguished the spread of disease in refugee camps .

At the end of the war, Dr. Rita Levi returned to his old career, continuing to work as an assistant to Professor Juseppe Levi, cultivating nerve cells in vitro. In the autumn of 1946, Professor Viktor Hamburger came from Italy to Italy to the humble woman Rita Levi-Montalcini, inviting her to the United States to work at his lab for a semester. Hamburger was then the leading scientist in the field of embryology, served as assistant to Hans Sperma, the 1935 Nobel Prize in medicine, leaving Germany to the United States to settle and work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. .

The reason why he went to Italy and invited him to cooperate with Rita Levi-Montalcini to cooperate because he was a very marketer, he was very impressed by her scientific article on the implanted, anti-nerve cell transplant. for the hypothesis he gave about neuronal development. He suggested that she work together in studying the mechanism of controlling the development and differentiation of motor neurons and sensations.

Thinking of working only for three months, but succeeding success, Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini was attracted to work so she stayed here for 30 years in a row. This is her most brilliant stage of talent development. She has done so many creative tasks in the study of nervous system, explored new issues no one has thought of and achieved great achievements.

From studying cancerous tissues taken from rats to chicken fetuses - where cells grow very rapidly - along with a biochemist Stanley Cohen, she discovered glands that produce snake venom and salivary glands in mice. These are very rich sources of a protein called 'growth factor' (nerve growth factor) (NGF) , which plays a fundamental role in the differentiation and development of sensory cells, opening up a lot. New direction in biomedical in the later years as well as understanding the mechanism of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, disability in newborns. Thanks to it, she became the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology / Medicine in 1986.

In 1961 Levi-Montalcini was appointed professor at the University of Washington, but since 1958, formed a close relationship between the Center for Neurobiology established by herself in Rome as director and university. study that she is teaching. Her working time is split between two places and every place stands at the front of the world neuroscience research.

Rita Levi-Montalcini just celebrated his 102nd birthday.

In 1969, the Italian National Science Council upgraded the center to a national laboratory for cell biology, including the Department of Cell Biology, Physiological Genetics and Immunology. In 1979, when she reached retirement age, she was in her homeland, continuing her position as director of the laboratory. There, she was passionate about research, and still being the emeritus professor of the University of Washington and the Institute of Neurobiology in Rome, attached to teaching until 1989, when she was 80, going Again began to feel difficult.

Scientists greatly appreciate Levi-Mantalcini's dedication to science. She was invited to be an honorary citizen of many European and American cities; academician of the American Academy of Sciences (1968), the Italian National Academy (1976), the Belgian Academy of Medicine (1979), the French Academy of Sciences (1989) . as well as many academic titles attended by Upsala University, Sweden, Weitzman Institute of Science, Israel, University of London, University of Brazil, Harvard University and many other prestigious universities.In 1987, Levi-Montalcini was awarded the highest honorary award for an American scientist .

So far, Levi-Montalcini is still present in the international scientific community, still has outstanding contributions to Italian science in terms of research orientation and state-level scientific programs. She still regularly goes to Roma Cell Research Institute for suggestions on topics or marks doctoral dissertations. It is often said that she is a ' profound influence on three generations of Italian scientists '.

Together with her twin sister, she created education programs for young people, infusing them with a passion for science and art. They established a separate fund, granting scholarships to more than 7,000 African girls who were allowed to go to school.

Spending time with social activities, Ms. Levi-Moncalcini is also a politician. In 2001, she was appointed by President Carlo Ciampie to be a "lifetime MP" in the Italian Senate. Although the scientific work required a lot of time to travel around the world, she was still an aggressive left-wing MP, a feminist activist and biological ethics. When taking a break, to relieve stress after being immersed in the lab, she wrote books about professionalism, writing memoirs . and there are books that have become 'best-sellers' for a while.

In 2009, living for a century, Levi-Mantalcini was, of course, the longest-lived ' Nobel laureate ' among the world's most famous scientists. In addition to the solemn celebration at the Rome City Hall, organized by the Italian Government and Congress, the European Brain Research Institute (ERBRI), she is the founder at the age of 95 celebrated the leading scientist's birthday on this brain with a huge symposium called ' Brain for Health and Disease ' with the participation of representatives of brain science worldwide .

In an interview, she said her brain worked very well at age 100: ' I still have inventions around NGF that give me the Nobel prize I discovered 50 years ago .' Asked about the secret of longevity, she revealed: ' It is always thinking. There are things, don't think about age, don't regret anything and don't think about yourself. That is the only message I want to send to everyone . '

She reminded young people: ' I want to tell young people: Don't think of yourself, but think of others, think about the future that is ahead, think about what you can do and not there is anything to scare me . '

At the end of last April, she celebrated her 102nd birthday. Of course, the time made her eyes faint, her ears were throbbing, her limbs were slow, but each time she talked about science and the elderly. Nobel laureate 'lives beyond the limits of a common human life, still lively, passionate.

So she forgot to build a private home to devote herself to ' It '. Every day, she still gets up at 5 am, only eating a lunch and dinner all day, sipping a glass of orange or thin soup. 11 o'clock at night to bed. And thinking, thinking constantly.