Download Rita Levi Montalcini was born on April 22nd, 1909

Rita Levi Montalcini was born on April 22nd, 1909, in Turin,
Italy.In 1930, she enrolled in the Turin Medical School,
graduating in 1936.Her academic career was cut short by
Mussolini's 1938 Manifesto della Razza. During World War II,
she conducted experiments from a home laboratory, studying
the growth of nerve fibers in chick embryos which laid the
groundwork for much of her later research. In 1947, Levi
Montalcini accepted an invitation to Washington University,
where she did her most important work: isolating nerve growth
factors.In 1962 she established a research unit in Rome,
dividing the rest of her time between there and Washington .
From 1961 to 1969 she directed the Research Center of
Neurobiology of the CNR and, from 1969 to 1971, the
Laboratory of Cellular Biology. In 1986, she received the Nobel
Prize in Medicine, with colleague Stanley Cohen, for their
discovery of growth factors .In 2001 she was nominated as
Senator-for-life by Italian President Ciampi. Rita Levi-Montalcini
died in in Rome on 30th December 2012 at the age of 103.
Mrs Montalcini, we know your studies about genetics, so could
you tell us something about Mendel and his research?
Of course. Genetics is the study of the mechanism of transmission
of characters from one generation to another, and Gregor Mendel is
the father of this science because for the first time he carried out
the first studies on heredity using pea plants. He established three
laws. The first law is about the dominant trait in the first filial
generation, the second one affirms that every item has couple of
factors for each heredity unit and the third one affirms that crossing
individuals that are heterozygous for two genes generates four
possible phenotypes. Mendel also found that a gene is a sequence
of DNA located on a locus on a chromosome. Organisms are
determined by a pair of sex chromosomes – XX for female and XY
for male- women produce only gametes with X chromosome, while
men produce half of X and half of Y chromosome. In the end
Mendel discovered the incomplete dominance when the phenotype
of the eterozygous has intermediate characteristics between the
two omozigous. I hope my answer has been clear.
Before Mendel, is there any example of people who discovered
something about genes?
I want to tell you a story related to my religion: in the Middle Eastern
desert of 1,800 years ago, a Jewish woman had given birth to a son.
As required by the laws set down by God’s commandment, he had to
be circumcised. But the rabbis knew that the woman’s two previous
sons had bled to death and they decided to exempt the third son.
The rabbis understood that the bleeding disorder was carried by the
mother and passed on to her sons. Without any knowledge of our
modern concepts of genes and genetic, the rabbis had linked a
human disease (which we now know as hemophilia A) to a pattern
of inheritance.
Now we know for sure that the genetic mutation that causes the
blood clotting malfunction of hemophilia is located on the X
chromosome.
Could you tell us something about DNA?
DNA is the material which programmes many of our physical and
psychological traits and was first identified in 1869. His structure,
which was discovered by Francis Crick and James Watson in the
middle of the last century, has a sort of double helix shape. It is
made of different nucleid acids. Acids are made up from nucleotide
molecules that have three parts: a sugar molecule, a phosphate
group and a base containing nitrogen. These bases are called
adenine, cytosine, guanine and thiamine. That’ s all what the DNA
is constituted of.
And what does DNA have to do with genetically modified
crops?
GM crops are organisms the DNA of which has been modified using
genetic engineering techniques, for many different purposes; the
main one being to develop crop and animal varieties able to
survive without the use of armful chemicals in extreme weather
conditions. Many people don’ t agree with the GM crops because
they think that they could damage human health. Even if they could,
it’ s amazing to think that the discovery of the molecule of DNA
made it possible.
Finally we would lite to know if you have heard about the
recent discoveries of Encode?
Some months ago a new explanation of DNA was discovered :it
solves and sheds light on diseases as cancer or Alzheimer’s and
on others ailment diseases. Since the beginning of researches about
the human genome, scientists have been perplexed by the long
strands of our DNA that seem to do nothing (80 % nearly), the socalled “Junk DNA”. After 10 years of hard work in a collaborative
project called ENCODE, it has finally figured out what these long
strands do: IT’S MIDDLE MANAGEMENT. They are the deciders of
everything. Knowing that genes are surrounded by an entourage of
promoters and suppressors–call them gene whisperers- expands the
list of possible targets for intervention considerably. In some diseases,
in cystic fibrosis for example, we have discovered the genetic
mutation that causes it, but we have been unable to repair it. Now we
only know that one of the bits of DNA is responsible for greenlighting
the bad gene’s expression, so we will be able to focus it.
Thank you very much Ms. Levi Montalcini, it’s been very
interesting talking to you.