Nicholas Cohen, Ph.D.

About Me

Professional Background

Dr. Cohen is Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology and of Psychiatry. He received his B.A. degree cum laude in Biology from Princeton University in 1959 and his Ph.D. in Biology (supervisor Dr. Johannes Holtfreter) from the University of Rochester in Feb. 1966. He was an NIH Postdoctor...

Dr. Cohen is Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology and of Psychiatry. He received his B.A. degree cum laude in Biology from Princeton University in 1959 and his Ph.D. in Biology (supervisor Dr. Johannes Holtfreter) from the University of Rochester in Feb. 1966. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Scholar (supervisor Dr. William H. Hildemann) in the Department Medical Microbiology & Immunology of the UCLA School of Medicine from1965-67. He joined the URMC Department of Microbiology and Immunology in 1967 where he served until his retirement in 2004. He took a sabbatical at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel, Switzerland in 1975-76 and at the Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands in 1982-83. In addition to his joint appointment as Professor of Psychiatry (1992-2004), he was Director of the Division of Immunology (1979-2004) and Director of the Graduate Cluster in Immunology, Microbiology & Vaccine Biology (1998-2004)

Faculty Appointments

Professor Emeritus - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (SMD)

Professor Emeritus - Department of Psychiatry, Behav/Psychosoc Med (SMD) - Joint

Credentials

Education

PhD | University of Rochester. Biology. 1966

BA | Princeton University. Biology. 1959

Awards

Norman Cousins Memorial Lecture Awardee of the PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society, 2004. 2004 - 2004

Burroughs Wellcome Visiting Professor, Florida International University, 2002. 2002 - 2002

Immunology Course Instructor– SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine 1999. 1999 - 1999

Psychoneuroimmunology Summer Workshop Faculty, May 1998, Univ .Missouri, Kansas City, MO. 1998 - 1998

Bidder Lecturer 1997 –Invited-Society for Experimental Biology, Canterbury, England. 1997 - 1997

Elected Vice-President for The Americas - International Society for Developmental and Comparative Immunology 1994-1997, 1997-00. 1994 - 2000

Elected Member of the Executive Council, Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, 1993- 1994; 1995-1998; Chair, Scientific Affair. 1993 - 1998

Visiting Professor: Psychoneuroimmunology Course, 1989, University of Tennessee Med. Center, Memphis, TN. 1989 - 1989

NIH MERIT grant awardee 1989-1998. 1989 - 1998

Board of Directors, American Type Culture Collection (1988-1994); American Society of Zoologists representative); Member, Member. 1988 - 1994

Senior Fulbright Research Scholar and Visiting Professor 1982-1983 Agricultural University (now Wageningen University), The Neth. 1982 - 1983

Visiting Professor - Reptilian Immunology Group, Cairo University, Arab Republic of Egypt. 1979 - 1979

Elected Chairperson, Division of Comparative Immunology of the American Society of Zoologists, 1977-1979; Chairperson Elect 1993. 1977

Editorial Board: Developmental and Comparative Immunology (1977 to 2003); co-founder and Associate Editor: Brain, Behavior and I. 1977 - 2003

Member, Immunobiology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health. 1976 - 1980

NIH Research Career Development Awardee. 1974 - 1978

Elected to the Executive Board, Rochester Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi. 1973 - 1977

Elected Secretary, Rochester Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi. 1971 - 1973

Markle Scholar Candidate from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. 1968 - 1968

Elected to Full Membership in the Society of the Sigma Xi, 1966 (UCLA Chapter). 1966 - 1966

Recipient of the Donald R. Charles Memorial Award, University of Rochester (Department of Biology). 1965 - 1965

Elected to Associate Membership in the Society of the Sigma Xi, 1959 (Princeton Chapter). 1959 - 1959

Research

Dr. Cohen conducted research in two areas of inquiry: evolutionary immunobiology and psychoneuroimmunology. He was involved in each of these "disciplines" from their earliest emergence as areas of investigation.
When in mid 1960s, he published the first detailed analyses of transplantation immu...

Dr. Cohen conducted research in two areas of inquiry: evolutionary immunobiology and psychoneuroimmunology. He was involved in each of these "disciplines" from their earliest emergence as areas of investigation.
When in mid 1960s, he published the first detailed analyses of transplantation immunity in urodele amphibians, it was just being recognized that so called primitive vertebrates had bonafide immune systems fully capable of mounting adaptive and innate defensive responses. His subsequent research in amphibian immunology, using primarily a Xenopus model, addressed the phylogeny of thymus function, MHC restriction, cytokines, tolerance, heat shock proteins and immunity, and anti-viral immunity in the context of amphibian declines and extinctions.
In the 1970s, his research with Dr. Robert Ader revealed that Pavlovian conditioning (i.e., learning) could be used to modulate immune responses in rodents. Their early research demonstrating immune responses are shaped by complex interactions among behavior, the nervous system, and the immune systems, formed the cornerstone of the field they named psychoneuroimmunology.