A pioneer in the study of growth factors--the nutrients that differentiate the development of cells--Stanley Cohen is best known for isolating nerve growth factor (NGF), the first known growth factor, and for subsequently discovering and fully identifying the epidermal growth factor (EGF). Cohen shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with his colleague, Italian American neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who first discovered NGF. Research on NGF has led to better understanding of such degenerative disorders as cancer and Alzheimer's disease, while studies concerning EGF have proved useful in exploring alternative burn treatments and skin transplants.

Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922 to Russian immigrant parents. Though his father earned only a modest living as a tailor, both parents, Louis and Fannie (Feitel) Cohen, ensured that their four children received quality educations. As a child, Cohen was stricken with polio, imparting him with a permanent limp. His...