After working as a bacteriologist at a milk processing plant to earn money, he received his Master of Arts in zoology from Oberlin College in 1945.

He later isolated a protein that could accelerate incisor eruption and eyelid opening in newborn mice,[9] which was renamed epidermal growth factor.

[10] He continued research on cellular growth factors after joining the faculty of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1959.

[11] Cohen received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Rita Levi-Montalcini in 1983, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for the isolation of nerve growth factor and the discovery of epidermal growth factor and the National Medal of Science in 1986.

[12][13][14][15] His research on cellular growth factors has proven fundamental to understanding the development of cancer and designing anti-cancer drugs.