In praise of imperfection: my life and work
In praise of imperfection: my life and work
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赞美不完美：我的生活和工作
DOI：
10.5860/choice.26-0956
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发表时间：
1988
影响因子：
13.1
通讯作者：
R. Levi‐montalcini
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Levi‐montalcini
作为第四位获得诺贝尔医学奖的女性的自传，《赞美不完美》似乎是一个虚伪的标题。然而，这个标题也揭示了一种哲学和超然的观点，但富有同情心和谦虚。Levi-Montalcini博士将这种双重视角带到了一个非凡的人生故事的讲述中。1909年出生于意大利的都灵。她是成功的、高度同化的“以色列人”的女儿，在一个舒适的社会环境中长大，远离了第一次世界大战的创伤和20世纪20年代初法西斯主义的兴起。虽然她用感情描述了她的家庭成员和朋友，但Levi-Montalcini博士也经历了“一种深刻的孤立感。小时候，她避免与父亲和家庭教师发生身体接触，而青少年时期，她觉得自己“在社交和运动方面存在缺陷”。她认为自己缺乏兄弟姐妹的天赋，她的双胞胎姐姐是艺术家，她的哥哥是建筑师，她决定不结婚，她选择了学医，这对一个女人和法西斯意大利的犹太人来说是一个不祥的选择。1930年，Levi-Montalcini博士成为都灵大学Giuseppe Levi的学生，在那里她学习了Ramon y Cajal的传统，研究神经系统的方法。她的同学包括雷纳托·杜尔贝科和萨尔瓦多·卢里亚，他们成为她终身的同事和朋友。尽管她早期怀疑她所掌握的方法的局限性，但她还是把自己投身于神经胚胎学研究，这是她在战争期间一直坚持的承诺，直到今天。1938年，由于颁布了反犹太法令，她的前途突然中断。与其他欧洲犹太人不同的是，列维-蒙塔尔奇尼博士不仅在她出生的国家度过了战争年代，而且还继续她的毕生事业。在她的卧室里，她对鸡胚胎进行了卓有成效的研究，直到1943年，在致命的危险中，她和家人逃到了佛罗伦萨。在那里，她住在地下，她的生存归功于一个地主谁看其他的方式。战争结束后，她回到都灵，继续她的研究。1946年，给了她创作灵感的维克托·汉伯格邀请她到圣刘易斯的华盛顿大学学习一个学期。多亏了美国提供给她的资源和安宁，这个学期变成了她在大学的30多年任期。也是在华盛顿大学，她遇到了斯坦利科恩，一个年轻的博士后研究员和作者的“科学佐贺的重要参与者。“多年来对神经细胞的细致观察使Levi-Montalcini博士发展了这样一个概念，即细胞可以产生影响其他细胞生长和发育的可溶性因子。凭借科恩的生物化学专业知识，他们在1952年分离并鉴定了神经生长因子。他们的发现为其他生长因子的发现开创了先例，证明了培养神经细胞是必不可少的，并提供了一种新的方法。
In Praise ofImperfection seems like a disingenuous title for an autobiography of the fourth woman to receive the Nobel Prize in medicine. Yet the title also reveals an outlook that is philosophic and detached, but compassionate and modest. Dr Levi-Montalcini brings this dual perspective to the telling of an extraordinary life story. She was born in 1909 in Turin, Italy. Daughter of successful and highly assimilated "Israelites," she grew up in a comfortable social milieu, isolated from the traumas ofWorldWar I and the rise of fascism in the early 1920s. Although she describes her family members and friends with affection, Dr Levi-Montalcini also experienced "a profound sense of isolation." As a child she avoided physical contact with her father and governess, and as an adolescent she felt she had "deficiencies in matters ofsociability and sports." Believing that she lacked the natural talents of her siblings\p=m-\hertwin sister was an artist and her brother an architect\p=m-\and deciding against marriage, she chose to study medicine, an inauspicious choice for a woman and a Jew in fascist Italy. In 1930, Dr Levi-Montalcini became a student ofGiuseppe Levi at the Univer¬ sity ofTurin, where she learned, in the tradition ofRamon y Cajal, methods for studying the nervous system. Her classmates included Renato Dulbecco and Salvador Luria, who became her lifelong colleagues and friends. Despite her early doubts about the limitations of the methods at her disposal, she de¬ voted herself to neuroembryological re¬ search, a commitment that she carried through the war andmaintains today. Her promising career was abruptly halted in 1938 by the issuance of antiSemitic edicts. Unlike other European Jews, Dr Levi-Montalcini not only sur¬ vived the war years in the country ofher birth, but she also continued her lifework. In her bedroom she conducted highly productive research on chicken embryos until 1943, when, in mortal danger, she fled to Florence with her family. There she lived underground and owed her survival to a landlordwho looked the other way. After the war she returned to Turin and resumed her research. In 1946 Vic¬ tor Hamburger, who had inspired her work, invitedher to spend a semesterat Washington University in St Louis. Thanks to the resources and tranquillity afforded to her in the United States, the semester turned into a more than 30year tenure with the university. It was also at Washington University that she met Stanley Cohen, a young postdoctorate researcher and crucial participant in the author's "scientific saga." Years of meticulous observation ofnerve cells led Dr Levi-Montalcini to develop the concept that cells could pro¬ duce soluble factors that influence the growth and development of other cells. With Cohen's biochemical expertise, they isolated and characterized nerve growth factor in 1952. Their discovery set a precedent for the discovery of oth¬ er growth factors, proved indispensable for culturing nerve cells, and offered a