CohenBiography

Outstanding Achievement Award

Alan S. Cohen, M.D.

The Organizing Committee is pleased to present an award for outstanding achievement in the field of amyloidosis to Dr. Alan S. Cohen in recognition for his career as researcher, clinician, Program founder, editor, and colleague.

Dr. Cohen was the Founding Editor and is Editor of Amyloid: Journal of Protein Folding Disorders.  He is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in Rheumatology at Boston University School of Medicine.  He is the author or editor of 12 books and more than 700 research publications.  He has served in many leadership positions at Boston University School of Medicine including Director of the Arthritis Center, Chief of the Division of Medicine at Boston City Hospital, Director of the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Founder and Director of the Amyloid Treatment and Research Program and was the President of the American College of Rheumatology.  He is a member of many prestigious organizations including the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.  He has been recipient of numerous distinguished awards among which are the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Boston University School of Medicine, the Jan Van Bremeen Gold Medal from the Dutch Rheumatism Society, and the Gold Medal Award from the American College of Rheumatology.

Dr. Cohen began his research in amyloidosis while a fellow in Rheumatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital at the urging of Dr. Evan Calkins.  He isolated amyloid as a specific and unique fibrous protein, achieved its high resolution characterization for the first time with the electron microscope, and reported it at the First International Symposium on Amyloidosis, held in Groningen, The Netherlands in September, 1967.  He conducted biochemical studies on the relationship of the amyloid fibril to other proteins, carbohydrates, GAGs, and lipids, as well as immunological and protein sequence studies that led to the definition of amyloid types.  Reports from Dr. Cohen and his colleagues have been made at every subsequent International Symposium on Amyloidosis.