"Selective Growth Stimulating Effects of Mouse Sarcoma on the Sensory and Sympathetic Nervous System of the Chick Embryo" (1951), by Rita Levi-Montalcini and Viktor Hamburger

In ?Selective Growth Stimulating Effects of Mouse Sarcoma on the Sensory and Sympathetic Nervous System of the Chick Embryo,? Rita Levi-Montalcini [5] and Viktor Hamburger [6] explored the effects of two nerve growth stimulating tumors; mouse [7] sarcomas 180 and 37. This experiment led to the discovery that nerve growth factor [8] was a diffusible chemical and later to discoveries that the compound was a protein. Although this paper was an important step in the discovery of nerve growth factor [8], the term ?nerve growth factor? was not used in this paper. It was instead referred to as a ?growth promoting agent.? The discovery of nerve growth factor [8] earned Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen [9], who also discovered epidermal growth factor, the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine [10].