Career
Jacobs is a specialist in the molecular genetics of Mycobacteria. 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 Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
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 describing a novel system for the genetic manipulation of mycobacteria, "Introduction of Foreign deoxyribonucleic acid into Mycobacteria Using a Shuttle Phasmid".
By demonstrating the utility of shuttle phasmids as deoxyribonucleic acid transporters between East. coli plasmids and mycobacteriophages, this paved the way for recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid research for mycobacteria. Jacobs has been profiled several times in many media publications including The New York Times, Esquire Magazine and Discovery.