Stanley N. Cohen
Wolf Prize Laureate in Medicine 1981
Stanley N. Cohen
Affiliation at the time of the award:
Stanford University, School of Medicine, USA
Award citation:
“for his concepts underlying genetic engineering; for constructing a biologically functional hybrid plasmid, and for achieving actual expression of a foreign gene implanted in E. Coli by the recombinant DNA method”.
Prize share:
Stanley N. Cohen
Barbara McClintock
Although a number of workers have contributed to the concepts underlying genetic engineering based on recombinant DNA, Professor Stanley N. Cohen and his colleagues were the first to construct, in 1973, a biologically functional hybrid plasmid and in the following year to achieve actual expression of a foreign gene implanted in E. coli by the recombinant DNA method. Dr. Cohen has exercised a central and seminal role in discovering and developing this methodology, and in demonstrating its usefulness for analysing complex genetic elements, and for obtaining expression of foreign genes in bacterial cells.