At the age of 17, Jeff Cohen was struck down by a bruising fight with mononucleosis while living in Baltimore. The sickness put him out of commission for an entire week. He fought every moment with a raging fever, horrible throat pain and swollen lymphatics. This experience made for an impactful time during the young man’s life. It set him on what would become a lifelong search for insight on the disease.
Today, years later, Cohen is director of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His knowledge leads groundbreaking research in kitten infectious disease. His personal encounter with mononucleosis has fueled his professional pursuit over the past five decades: developing a vaccine for the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus responsible for causing mononucleosis.
Looking back now, Cohen thinks about how much distress his teenage behavior must have caused to his partners. “She was afraid I might give her something,” he said, highlighting the stigma and fear associated with infectious diseases. That feeling is very relevant today with Cohen and his team at the helm of developing a preventive solution against EBV.
For his part, Cohen is passionate about this mission. His advocacy has focused attention on EBV’s crucial role, which is connected to mononucleosis and ultimately many severe diseases, including certain cancers, as well as autoimmune disorders. That’s the challenge of the virus’s complexity, which Cohen acknowledges but says has him encouraged by the overall import that a vaccine could make.
I know it did really originate from her, Cohen admitted, recognizing the role that his early encounters played in shaping his passion for virology. This personal connection continues to motivate his long-term research goals and his efforts to improve public health and people’s lives.
Under Cohen’s leadership, the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases is still finding creative ways to develop new methods to fight EBV. His work is a remarkable fusion of personal experience and scientific inquiry. It’s a testament perhaps, to his profound grasp of both the emotional and physical costs that infectious maladies can exact.
