Renato Dulbecco
Italian–American virologist who won the 1975 Nobel Prize.
Renato Dulbecco, an Italian-American virologist, was one of three scientists awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how certain viruses, called oncoviruses, cause cancer in animal cells. He studied at the University of Turin under Giuseppe Levi with Salvador Luria and Rita Levi-Montalcini, both future Nobel winners who also relocated to the United States alongside him. During World War II, he was conscripted into the Italian army but later fought with the resistance.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 22 February 1914
- Birthplace
- Catanzaro, Italy
- Died
- 19 February 2012
- Place of death
- La Jolla, California, U.S.
- Field
- Virologist
- Workplaces
- Indiana University Bloomington
- California Institute of Technology
- Salk Institute
- London Research Institute
- Education
- University of Turin
- Doctoral students
- Howard Temin
Facts from the source article.
Early life
Dulbecco was born in Catanzaro, Calabria, but grew up in Imperia, Liguria. He graduated high school at 16 and entered the University of Turin, where he chose medicine over mathematics and physics. At 22, he graduated in morbid anatomy and pathology under Giuseppe Levi, meeting Salvador Luria and Rita Levi-Montalcini. Called up as a medical officer in 1936, he was discharged in 1938, then recalled in 1940 when Italy entered World War II. He served on the fronts in France and Russia, was wounded, and after hospitalization and the fall of Fascism, joined the resistance against German occupation.
Career and research
After the war, Dulbecco returned to Levi's laboratory but soon moved with Levi-Montalcini to the United States, working with Salvador Luria on bacteriophages at Indiana University. In summer 1949 he joined Max Delbrück's group at Caltech. On Delbrück's advice, he visited major animal virus centers to develop a plaque assay for animal viruses, similar to one used for bacterial viruses. Within a year he devised such a method for Western equine encephalitis virus, opening animal virology to quantitative work. He and Vogt then used the technique to study poliovirus. These achievements led to his appointment as associate professor, then full professor at Caltech, where he began studying animal oncoviruses, particularly the polyoma family. In the late 1950s he took Howard Temin as a student; Temin and David Baltimore independently discovered reverse transcriptase, and Dulbecco, though not directly involved in their experiments, had taught them the methods they used. The three shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Renato Dulbecco born?
Renato Dulbecco was born on 22 February 1914 in Catanzaro, Italy.
When did Renato Dulbecco die?
Renato Dulbecco died on 19 February 2012 in La Jolla, California, U.S.
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