Cohen, Stanley (1922– )

US biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986 jointly with Rita Levi-Montalcini for their work to isolate and characterize growth factors, small proteins that regulate the growth of specific types of cells, such as nerve and epidermal cells.

Cohen helped to purify and characterize nerve growth factor, a small protein produced in the male salivary gland that regulates the growth of small nerves and affects the development of the sensory and sympathetic neurons. He went on to discover another growth factor, called epidermal growth factor, that affects epithelial cell growth, tooth eruption, and eyelid opening. He then laboured to link epidermal growth factor to the regulation of embryonic growth. Subsequent studies by other scientists have shown that this growth factor also plays a crucial part in the exaggerated growth rate of some cancer cells.

Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Brooklyn College and the universities of Ohio and Michigan. While working at Vanderbilt University in the early 1950s, he became aware of Levi-Montalcini's discovery of the first growth factor, nerve growth factor.