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Stanley Cohen
(1922)
American biochemist who, with Rita Levi-Montalcini, shared the 1986
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his researches on substances
produced in the body that influence the development of nerve and skin
tissues.
Cohen was educated at Brooklyn College (B.A., 1943), Oberlin College
(M.A., 1945), and at the University of Michigan, where he received a
Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1948. He joined Levi-Montalcini at Washington
University, St. Louis, Mo., as a researcher in 1952. His training as
a biochemist enabled him to help isolate nerve growth factor, a natural
substance that Levi-Montalcini had found stimulated the growth of nerve
cells and fibres. Cohen found another cell growth factor in the chemical
extracts that contained the nerve growth factor. He discovered that
this substance caused the eyes of newborn mice to open and their teeth
to erupt several days sooner than normal. Cohen termed this substance
epidermal growth factor (EGF), and he went on to purify it and completely
analyze its chemistry. He and his coworkers found that EGF influences
a great range of developmental events in the body. He also discovered
the mechanisms by which EGF is taken into and acts upon individual cells.
Cohen conducted his research at Washington University until 1959, upon
which he moved to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., becoming
professor of biochemistry there in 1967.
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