Dedication: Growth and trophic factors

✍ Scribed by Jean de Vellis; J. Regino Perez-Polo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 154 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-4012
• DOI: 10.1002/jnr.490080202

✦ Synopsis

Unique insight and vision allowed Viktor Hamburger and Rita Levi-Montalcini to follow experiments on the effects of artificially enlarged fields of sensory and sympathetic innervation to develop an in vitro assay system using explanted sensory ganglia as a bioassay for the trophic activities detected in mouse sarcomas. The bioassay made possible the first purification of snake venom and murine Nerve Growth Factor by Stanley Cohen, through the application of, at the time, recently developed ion exchange resins. The combination of a quantifiable bioassay in vitro and new biochemical isolation techniques alone might not have been successful without the imagination and perserverance of these three gifted scientists. Thus, it is appropriate that this special issue is dedicated to Rita Levi-Montalcini, Viktor Hamburger, and Stanley Cohen, whose work has altered so much of modern developmental neurobiology and neurochemistry. The breadth and depth of work in this area today, as exemplified by the contributions to this special issue, is testimony to the insights of the scientists we honor.