Renato Dulbecco

Renato Dulbecco
Born(1914-02-22)February 22, 1914
Catanzaro, Italy
DiedFebruary 19, 2012(2012-02-19) (aged 97)
NationalityItalian, American
Alma materUniversity of Turin
Known forReverse transcriptase
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsVirologist
Institutions
Doctoral studentsHoward Temin

Renato Dulbecco (/dʌlˈbɛk/ dul-BEK-oh, Italian: [reˈnaːto dulˈbɛkko, -ˈbek-]; February 22, 1914 – February 19, 2012) was an Italian–American virologist who won the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on oncoviruses, which are viruses that can cause cancer when they infect animal cells. He studied at the University of Turin under Giuseppe Levi, along with fellow students Salvador Luria and Rita Levi-Montalcini, who also moved to the U.S. with him and won Nobel prizes. He was drafted into the Italian army in World War II, but later joined the resistance.