The Italian Nobel prize-winning neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini has died at the age of 103.

Miss Levi-Montalcini lived through anti-semitic discrimination under fascism to become one of Italy's top scientists and most respected figures.

She won acclaim for her work on cells, which furthered understanding of a range of conditions, including cancer.

In 1986 she shared the Nobel prize for medicine with biochemist Stanley Cohen for research carried out in the US.