Renato Dulbecco

Renato Dulbecco (1914–2012)

Premio Nobel per la medicina  nel 1974 insieme a  H. Temin, un suo ex-allievo, ed a  D. Baltimore.

Era originario di Catanzaro. Ha lavorato al California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena e in seguito al Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. 

Ha avuto tra i suoi studenti Rita Levi Montalcini e Salvator Luria, altre due eccellenze italiane.

E' stato un importante mentore e guida di molti ricercatori e medici, in campo microbiologico ha portato alla conoscenza degli oncovirus, che rilasciano geni per proteine oncogeniche in stato iperattivo.

Ha partecipato al progetto di sequenziamento del genoma umano, posto alla guida dei gruppi italiani che hanno contribuito alla realizzazione del progetto.

Sulla sua vita ci sono aspetti che non si immaginano:

• After obtaining his doctorate in 1936, Dulbecco was drafted into the Italian army as a physician. He was called to action in 1939, at the outset of the Second World War, to serve first in France and then in Russia. Disaffected by the war and its consequences, he deserted the army and hid in a small village near Turin, becoming physician to the local partisan units resisting the German occupation. After the end of the war, was an elected city councillor in Turin in 1945, then he returned to scientific research at the University of Turin. 
• Dulbecco was an elegant man: a dapper dresser, soft spoken, with an ever-present smile. He was comfortable among the nobility, yet adept at changing the oil in his car; at once distant yet approachable. He was a charming host at dinners organized by his wife Maureen.... In short, he was always the perfect gentleman.   Da:
  Nature
   
  483,
   
  408
   
  (22 March 2012)