LAUSR

In 1986, Rita Levi‐Montalcini and Stanley Cohen were awarded with the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for the discovery of the nerve growth factor. Among the experimental models used by Levi‐Montalcini in the first part of her studies it was the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane, currently used in the study of tumor growth and angiogenesis. Levi‐Montalcini grafted fragments of mouse sarcomas on to the chorioallantoic membranes of 4‐ to 6‐day chick embryos and demonstrated that the tumors infiltrated the host blood vessels. Moreover, the ganglia showed hypertrophy, nerve fibers reaching to the implanted tumors. Levi‐Montalcini hypothesized that the effects could have been mediated by a soluble factor, which was later identified as the nerve growth factor.