12 Immigrants Who Made American Medicine Great

12 Immigrants Who Made American Medicine Great — page 1
1 Rita Levi-Montalcini Learns How Nerves Grow Nothing could keep Rita Levi Montalcini from doing science Not even World War II She was born in Turin Italy on April 22 1909 In 4 1936 she graduated from medical school By that time life in Europe was difficult for some people Especially for Jews The Levi Montalcini family was Jewish But hardship didn’t stop her She built laboratories in her home Even when Italy was being bombed she kept doing research on nerve cells Nerves are long fibers that run through the whole body They send signals back to the brain These signals tell the brain if something is hot or cold soft or hard Nerves also sense pain World War II ended in 1945 After the war Levi-Montalcini continued her research In 1947 she was invited to work at Washington University in St Louis Missouri She studied there and did nerve growth research for 30 years Not much was known about how nerves grow Levi-Montalcini’s