There is an eye disease that until a few years ago did not have a dedicated therapy. It took us to get there 85 years oldthree countries, chicken embryos and even snake venom. In our latest video we retrace one of the most fascinating stories in science: that of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF).
A scientist and a laboratory at home
It all started in Italy during the Second World War, when it was not yet known that our body produces a substance capable of making neurons grow. To guess it is Rita Levi-Montalcini who, excluded from the university due to the racial laws, sets up a makeshift laboratory at home in Turin. In the video we tell you how one of the most important discoveries in neuroscience was born from that room.
Snake venom and Nobel Prize
Levi-Montalcini was called to the United States to continue her studies by one of the world’s leading experts in the field, Victor Hamburger. The most difficult problem remained: isolating that substance among millions of molecules. We show you how, thanks to the biochemist Stanley Cohen and to an ingenious tool, snake venom, the team finally gives a name to that protein: theNGF. A discovery that will be worth the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
From discovery to medicine
But a protein is not yet a therapy: it must be recreated in the laboratory, in large quantities and with very high purity. In the video we tell you how Rita’s legacy is taken up by the pharmaceutical industry, up to one innovative therapy for a rare eye disease.
The history of NGF teaches us that hours under the microscope, even in a bedroom, can become the spark that years later turns into a therapy. Curious to discover the entire journey?
