Stanley Cohen

Stanley Cohen, born in 1922, American biochemist, born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Brooklyn and Oberlin colleges and at the University of Michigan. In 1986 Cohen received, with Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. They were credited with the discovery of cell growth factors, proteins that promote and help regulate development of various cells. Collaborators in the early 1950s at Washington University in St. Louis, Cohen and Levi-Montalcini discovered the nerve growth factor, which governs cell development in the nervous system. Later, working separately, Cohen discovered the epidermal growth factor, which governs cell development in skin; many other growth factors have since been found. The recipient of numerous awards, including the 1986 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, Cohen published papers on cell biology, human developmental biology, and embryology, and taught at Vanderbilt University.