Stanley Cohen
(1922 - )
Stanley Cohen was born on November 17, 1922. Cohen
attended Brooklyn College, majoring in Chemistry and
Biology. He continued his education at Oberlin College,
where he received an M.A. in Zoology in 1945, and then
in the Biochemistry Department at the University of
Michigan where he received a Ph.D. in 1948.
Cohen’s first job was in the Pediatrics and
Biochemistry Departments of the University of Colorado,
where he was involved in metabolic studies of premature
infants. In 1952, Cohen moved to St. Louis, Missouri
to work in the Department of Radiology at Washington
University as a postdoctoral fellow of the American
Cancer Society. In 1953, he became associated with the
Department of Zoology, where he first met Rita
Levi-Montalcini.
In 1959, he transferred to Vanderbilt University as
an Assistant Professor in the Biochemistry Department.
In 1976, he was appointed an American Cancer Society
Research Professor and in 1986 Distinguished Professor.
In 1986, Cohen was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Medicine, with Rita Levi-Montalcini, for
for their discovery of growth factors.
Awards
· American Cancer Society Research Professor
of Biochemistry (1976)
· National Academy of Science (1980)
· H.P. Robertson Memorial Award, National Academy
of Science (1981)
· Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award, Brandeis University(1982)
· American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984)
· National Medal of Science (1986)
The following press release from the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences describes Montalcini
and Cohen's work:
“The Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine is awarded for discoveries which
are of fundamental importance for our understanding
of the mechanisms which regulate cell and
organ growth. The pattern of cellular growth
has long been known, but it is the Italian
developmental biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini
and the American biochemist Stanley Cohen
with their discovery of nerve growth factor
(NGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF),
respectively, who could show how the growth
and differentiation of a cell is regulated.
NGF and EGF were the first of many growth-regulating
signal substances to be discovered and
characterized.
The discovery of NGF and EGF has opened
new fields of widespread importance to
basic science. As a direct consequence
we may increase our understanding of many
disease states such as developmental malformations,
degenerative changes in senile dementia,
delayed wound healing and tumour diseases.
The characterization of these growth factors
is therefore expected, in the near future,
to result in the development of new therapeutic
agents and improved treatment in various
clinical diseases.”
Sources: Nobelprize.org,
Nobel
Prize Autobiography |