| Bill Jacobs | |
| Birth Date: | 13 March 1955 |
| Birth Place: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Fields: | Microbiology |
| Workplaces: | Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
| Alma Mater: | Edinboro University of Pennsylvania University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Roy Curtiss III |
| Known For: | Developing genetics for Mycobacterium tuberculosis |
William R. Jacobs Jr., is a professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, New York, where he is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Jacobs is a specialist in the molecular genetics of Mycobacteria.[1] 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.[2]
In 1985, Jacobs joined Barry Bloom's lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow[3] to work on the resurgent problem of tuberculosis. In 1987, the two co-authored a ground-breaking[4] paper published in Nature describing a novel system for the genetic manipulation of mycobacteria, "Introduction of Foreign DNA into Mycobacteria Using a Shuttle Phasmid".[5] 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.[6]
Jacobs has been profiled several times in many media publications including The New York Times, Esquire Magazine, and Discovery.[7]