During World War Two, Italian scientist Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini was forced to do experiments in her bedroom after being banned from universities because she was Jewish.

Her experiments in that bedroom laboratory on chicken embryos led to the discovery of nerve cell death.

Whilst working in the United States after the war, she worked out that a protein factor was required for the growth of our nerves. A discovery which won her the Nobel Prize in physiology in 1986.

Her work improved our understanding of the nervous system and has allowed scientists to potentially battle degenerative diseases such as dementia.

Produced and presented by Tim O’Callaghan, using archive interviews from the Nobel Prize Institute, the Society for Neuroscience and the BBC Archives.

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(Photo: Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini in 1950. Mondadori via Getty Images)

The discovery of nerve growth factor

Witness History