Stanley Cohen (1922-)

Sitting in a Hawaiian deli in 1972, Stanford University associate professor of medicine Stanley Cohen could not have imagined that a discussion with his lunch date, Herb Boyer, regarding a possible collaboration would lead to the creation of the biotechnology era. Their combined research led to the construction of the first genetically modified organism and introduced the world to recombinant DNA technology.

Cohen, a New Jersey native, completed a B.A. in biological sciences at Rutgers University and earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He worked at the National Institutes of Health before joining the faculty of Stanford University in 1968, where he is now the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor of Genetics and a Professor of Medicine.

Cohen’s early research centered on the isolation and cloning of antibiotic-resistant plasmids—small, circular DNA molecules in bacteria. Paired with Boyer’s restriction enzyme experiments, the two researchers removed DNA from E. coli bacteria, modified it for antibiotic resistance, and inserted the altered genes back into the organism’s DNA. The successful experiment spawned subsequent generations of E. coli bacteria with antibiotic resistance. Shortly after this discovery, Cohen and Boyer added frog DNA to E. coli, proving that an organism’s DNA could be successfully spliced with that from other species. The genetic engineering of living organisms now comprises countless biotech innovations in pharmacology, industry, and agriculture.