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This volume is a collection of articles written by Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini and published from 1942 to 1995. Studies described in the first part set the stage for the discovery of a protein molecule which became known as the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), described in detail in the second part. The NGF synthesized in minute amounts in all vertebrate tissues, plays an essential role in the differentiation and survival of several nerve cell populations in the peripheral and central nervous system. The discovery of the NGF was defined by the Nobel Foundation as a milestone in developmental neurobiology, and the author was awarded in 1986 with this prestigious award. Studies pursued in subsequent years and still in progress, have unveiled other fundamental properties of the NGF, described in the third part of this volume.
Neuroimmunology is a rapidly-growing branch of biomedical science that studies of all aspects of the interactions between the immune system and nervous system. It deals with, among other things, the physiological functioning of the neuroimmune system in states of both health and disease; malfunctions of the neuroimmune system in disorders (autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivities, immune deficiency), the physical, chemical and physiological characteristics of the components of the neuroimmune system in vitro, in situ, and in vivo. Despite the brain's status as an immune privileged site, an extensive bi-directional communication takes place between the nervous and the immune system in both hea...
Proceedings of the 11th European Society for Neurochemistry Meeting held in Groningen, The Netherlandes, June 15-20, 1996
More than fifty years after its initial discovery by Rita Levi Montalcini and Stanley Cohen and the proposal of the neurotrophic theory, nerve growth factor (NGF) has become the prototype of a family of biologically active molecules called neurotrophic factors (NTFs). This book addresses important advances in NTF research, from basic science to clinical medicine. It focuses mainly on NGF, but also includes individual chapters dealing with the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and ligands of the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family, which have attracted increasing interest in the neuroscience community because of their diverse effects in the normal and diseased bra...
Frontiers in Catecholamine Research is a collection of papers presented at the Third International Catecholamine Symposium, held at the University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, on May 20-25, 1973. This book is organized into nine parts encompassing 205 chapters. The text begins with a discussion on clinically and experimentally used drugs that have been developed or whose mechanism of action has been clarified through monoamine research. Parts II and III deal with enzymes related to catecholamine studies, their properties, regulation, genetics, mechanism of action, and localization. Parts IV and V examine the concepts of synaptic dynamics of brain regulators and the isolation, characterization, methods of analysis, and mechanism of action of catecholamines. Part VI focuses on the complexities that surround the extrapolation of catecholamine function into the realms of electrophysiology and behavior. Part VII discusses the metabolism, behavioral, neurological, and physiological effects of amphetamine and other drugs of abuse. The concluding parts describe the role of catecholamine and its metabolism in neurologic diseases, such as schizophrenia.
Global health has been challenged with the dawning of the era of the obesity epidemic, and thus as a consequence, strategies to reduce obesity have become public health priorities. According to the United Nations, obesity has been identified as a concern for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Obesity is a serious health problem with an increased risk of several common diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Although the fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an imbalance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure, the underlying biochemical and metabolic processes that cause obesity are not fully understood. Two earlier volumes dedicated to the subj...
As a woman growing up in early 20th-century Italy, Rita Levi-Montalcini was expected to marry, not pursue an education. Against the objections of her father, she attended Turin School of Medicine, graduating with honors as an M.D. But her hopes of an academic position vanished with the fascist Italian government's persecution of the Jews in the late 1930s and early 1940s. At the risk of her own life, Levi-Montalcini continued studying how the body s nervous system develops and discovered the nerve growth factor, a protein that controls the growth of neurons and is required for their survival. Building upon her findings, she and a host of other researchers unearthed a whole class of compounds that are intimately involved in every stage of a cell s or an organism s life, from conception to death. Today, scientists are still exploring the implications of her work, from cancer treatments to Alzheimer s disease management to research on birth defects, and more. As Rita Levi-Montalcini shows, this woman's incredible persistence and faith in herself allowed her to persevere through tough opposition and earn a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986.
“My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife.”—Rita Levi-Montalcini Self-assured from an early age, Rita knew that she was cut out for a number of other roles and the difference she could make in the lives of others. Prevailing over her father’s traditional values, Rita attended medical school and continued to study the development of the nervous system after graduating. But as a Jew in fascist Italy, her work came to a halt with discriminatory race laws and again later, when she was forced into hiding from the Nazis. In a makeshift lab built from black-ma...
Mast Cells and Basophils will be essential reading for immunologists, biochemists and medical researchers. Detailed chapters cover all aspects of mast cell and basophil research, from cell development, proteases, histamine, cysteinyl leukotrienes, physiology and pathology to the role of these cells in health and disease. Chapters also discuss the clinical implications of histamine receptor antagonists.
This invaluable book contains 36 interviews, including 26 with Nobel laureates. It presents a cross-section of biomedical science, a field that has been dominant in science for the past half century. The in-depth conversations cover important research areas and discoveries, as well as the roads to these discoveries, including aspects of the scientists' work that never saw publication. They also bring out the humanness of the famous scientists — the reader learns about their backgrounds, aspirations, failings, and triumphs. The book is illustrated with snapshots of the conversations and photos provided by the interviewees. It is a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Candid Science: Conversations with Famous Chemists, by the same author./a