The mayor of Rome says biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who conducted underground research in defiance of Fascist persecution, and went on to win a Nobel Prize for helping unlock the mysteries of the cell, has died at her home in the city. She was 103. Italy’s so-called “Lady of the Cells,” who died on Sunday, lived through anti-Semitic discrimination and Nazi invasion, becoming one of her country’s leading scientists and sharing the medicine prize for her ground-breaking research in the United States.
Her research increased the understanding of many conditions, including tumours, developmental malformations, and senile dementia. Since 2001, Levi-Montalcini has served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life. Rita Levi-Montalcini had been the oldest living Nobel laureate and the first ever to reach a 100th birthday. On 22 April 2009, she was feted with a 100th birthday party at Rome’s city hall.
Her twin sister Paola Levi-Montalcini was a popular artist, who died 29 September 2000, aged 91. She and her twin were featured in the 1995 science documentary Death by Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times. [AP]
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