The failed attribution of the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology to Viktor Hamburger for the discovery of Nerve Growth Factor

Brain Res Bull. 2016 Jun:124:306-9. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2016.02.019. Epub 2016 Feb 27.

Abstract

The announcement in October 1986 that the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was to awarded to Rita Levi Montalcini and Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF) and epidermal growth factor, respectively, caused many to wonder why Viktor Hamburger in whose laboratory the initial work was done had not been included in the award. This article try to reconstruct the history of the discovery of NGF with the aim to re-establish a correct dynamic of the events.

Keywords: History of medicine; Nerve growth factor; Sympathetic neurons; Tumor growth.

Publication types

  • Biography
  • Historical Article
  • Portrait
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Embryology / history*
  • Epidermal Growth Factor / history
  • Epidermal Growth Factor / physiology
  • Germany
  • History, 20th Century
  • Humans
  • Nerve Growth Factor / history*
  • Nerve Growth Factor / physiology
  • Nobel Prize

Substances

  • NGF protein, human
  • Epidermal Growth Factor
  • Nerve Growth Factor

Personal name as subject

  • Viktor Hamburger