Stanley Cohen

Facts

Stanley Cohen

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Stanley Cohen
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1986

Born: 17 November 1922, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Died: 5 February 2020, Nashville, TN, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA

Prize motivation: “for their discoveries of growth factors”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

Human beings develop from a single cell that divides to form new cells. These new cells then also further divide and multiply. Little by little, different types of cells with different functions are formed. After Rita Levi Montalcini discovered a substance that promotes growth of the nervous system, in the mid-1950s Stanley Cohen discovered another growth factor that promotes growth of cells in the skin and cornea. The discovery of what are now known as growth factors has provided a deeper understanding of medical problems like deformities, senile dementia, delayed wound healing, and tumor diseases.

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MLA style: Stanley Cohen – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1986/cohen/facts/>

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