Stanley Cohen (biochemist)

Early life and education

Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 17, 1922. He was the son of Fannie (née Feitel) and Louis Cohen, a tailor. His parents were Jewish immigrants. Cohen received his bachelor's degree in 1943 from Brooklyn College, where he had double-majored in chemistry and biology. After working as a bacteriologist at a milk processing plant to earn money, he received his Master of Arts in zoology from Oberlin College in 1945. He earned a doctorate from the department of biochemistry about the metabolism of earthworms at the University of Michigan in 1948.

Career

His first academic employment was at the University of Colorado studying the metabolism of premature babies. In 1952 he moved to Washington University in St. Louis, working first in the department of radiology, learning isotope methodology, and then in the department of zoology. Working with Rita Levi-Montalcini, he isolated nerve growth factor. He later isolated a protein that could accelerate incisor eruption and eyelid opening in newborn mice, which was renamed epidermal growth factor. He continued research on cellular growth factors after joining the faculty of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1959.

In 1999, Cohen retired from Vanderbilt University.

Awards and legacy

Cohen received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Rita Levi-Montalcini in 1983, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for the isolation of nerve growth factor and the discovery of epidermal growth factor and the National Medal of Science in 1986.{{Cite journal | doi-access = free His research on cellular growth factors has proven fundamental to understanding the development of cancer and designing anti-cancer drugs.

His Scopus h-index value was 82 as of March 2022.

References

References

1. "Biochemist and Nobel Prize winner Stanley Cohen dies in Nashville at age 97".
2. (7 February 2020). "Stanley Cohen, Nobelist, Dies at 97; Made Breakthrough on Cell Growth". The New York Times.
3. "Stanley Cohen Biography".
4. (2003). "The international who's who 2004.". Europa.
5. (2019-01-15). "Nobel Laureates in Medicine or Physiology: A Biographical Dictionary". Routledge.
6. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1986".
7. Watts, Geoff. (March 2020). "Stanley Cohen". The Lancet.
8. (1979). "Epidermal Growth Factor". Annual Review of Biochemistry.
9. "Cohen's visit brings alive wonder, power of science (12/7/07)".
10. Cohen, Stanley. (1993). "Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1981–1990". World Scientific Publishing Co.
11. "Cohen, Stanley N.".