William R. Jacobs Jr., is a professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where he is also a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

Investigator. Jacobs is a specialist in the molecular genetics of

Mycobacteria ''Mycobacterium'' is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae. This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis ('' M. tuberculosis'') and ...

. His research efforts are aimed at discovering genes associated with virulence and pathogenicity in ''M. tuberculosis'' and developing attenuated strains for use as vaccines. He is a Founding Scientist at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV.

Early career

In 1985, Jacobs joined Barry Bloom's lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow to work on the resurgent problem of tuberculosis. In 1987, the two co-authored a ground-breaking paper published in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' describing a novel system for the genetic manipulation of mycobacteria, "Introduction of Foreign DNA into Mycobacteria Using a Shuttle Phasmid". By demonstrating the utility of shuttle phasmids as DNA transporters between ''E. coli'' plasmids and mycobacteriophages, this paved the way for recombinant DNA research for mycobacteria.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator (1990-present)

Jacobs has been profiled several times in many media publications including

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, Esquire Magazine and

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

.see:
Mechanism Explained for Drug Resistance in Some TB Strains
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, William R. Jr. 1955 births Living people Scientists from Pittsburgh American geneticists American microbiologists Edinboro University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Alabama at Birmingham alumni Albert Einstein College of Medicine faculty Howard Hughes Medical Investigators