Stanley N. Cohen is an American geneticist.

Originally from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Cohen is a graduate of Rutgers University, and received his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1960. Following subsequent training at various institutions, including the National Institutes of Health, he joined the faculty of Stanford University in 1968.

It was there that he began to explore the field of bacterial [[plasmid]s]. He wanted to understand how the genes of plasmids could make bacteria resistant to antibiotics. In 1972, Cohen's investigations, combined with those of Herbert Boyer, led to the development of methods to combine and transplant genes. This discovery signalled the birth of genetic engineering. Today, Cohen is a professor of genetics and medicine at Stanford, where he works on a variety of scientific problems including cell growth and development.

References

• Biography — a page of short boiographical sketches of various figures in genetics