Cohen, Stanley (1922-2020), was an American biochemist. His research on cell growth led to the development of important new cancer therapies. Cohen shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Rita Levi-Montalcini , an Italian-American biologist who collaborated on his early discoveries.
Cohen and Levi-Montalcini discovered chemicals called cellular growth factors that promote and help regulate the growth of various kinds of cells. In the 1950’s, the two scientists discovered a substance known as nerve growth factor that stimulates the growth of nerve cells. Cohen later discovered a similar substance called epidermal growth factor that regulates the growth of a number of other kinds of cells, including the outer layer of skin and the cornea of the eye.
Cohen was born in the Brooklyn section of New York City on Nov. 17, 1922. He majored in biology and chemistry and earned a B.S. degree at Brooklyn College in 1943. He earned an M.A. degree in zoology from Oberlin College in 1945 and a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Michigan in 1948. Cohen studied the metabolism of premature infants at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver from 1948 to 1952, when he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to do research at Washington University. He began his studies of cellular growth factors with Levi-Montalcini in 1953. In 1959, he joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, where he continued his research. Cohen died on Feb. 5, 2020.
