The current research interests of my lab include 1) generating complete sets of precise null barcoded deletion mutants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to screen for virulence and drug persistence in mouse and non-human primate models, 2) understanding persistence-the capacity of subpopulations of M. tuberculosis to resist killing assaults by bactericidal drugs or immune effectors, 3) use of a novel recombinant herpes vector to make novel influenza, Tuberculosis, Dengue, and EEEV vaccines that specifically elicit antibodies that mediate antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity, and 4) develop new luciferase reporter phage point of care diagnostics.

• Jacobs' Lab Website http://williamrjacobs.org/
• The TB Terminator https://www.aaas.org/bill-jacobs-tb-terminator
• The Exterminators https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a3918/exterminators1207/
• Presidential Lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBsUUW3UrSw
• National Academy of Sciences Profile  http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/20030248.html

1. Tiwari S, Casey R, Goulding CW, Hingley-Wilson S, Jacobs WR Jr. (2019) Infect and Inject: How Mycobacterium tuberculosis Exploits Its Major Virulence-Associated Type VII Secretion System, ESX-1. Microbiol Spectr. PMID: 31172908
2. Porcelli, S.S, Jacobs WR Jr. (2019). Eacting Edward Jenner's Revenge: The quest for a new tuberculosis vaccine. Sci Trasl Med. PMID: 31043569
3. Vilcheze C, Jacobs WR Jr. (2019). The Isonizid Paradigm of Killing, Resistance, and Persistence in Mycobcaterium Tuberculosis. J Mol Biol. PMID: 30797860
4. O'Donnell MR, Larsen MH, Brown TS, Jain P, Munsamy V, Wolf A, Uccellini L, Karim F, D'Olivera T, Mathema B, Jacobs WR, Pym A. (2019). Early Detection of emergent drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) by flow cytometry-based phenotyping and whole genome sequencing. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. PMCID: PMC6437479
5. Shen L., Frencher J., Huang D., Wang W., Yang E., Chen C.Y., Zhang Z., Wang R., Qaqish A., Larsen M.H., Shen H., Porcelli S.A., Jacobs W.R., Jr., Chen Z.W. (2019). Immunization of Vγ2Vδ2 T cells programs sustained effector memory responses that control tuberculosis in nonhuman primates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 116 (13): 6371-6378. PMID: 30850538
6. Johndrow CT, Goldberg MF, Johnson AJ, Ng TW, Kunnath-Velayudhan S, Lauvau G, Kaplan DH, Gossel GH, Kadolsky UD, Yates AJ, Chan J, Jacobs WR Jr, Porcelli SA. (2018). Suppresion of Th1 Priming by TLR2 Agonists during Cutaneous Immunization is Mediated by Recruited CCR2+ Monocytes. J Immunol. 201(12):3604-3616. PMID: 30455402
7. Bhatt K, Machado H, Osorio NS, Sousa J, Cardoso F, Magalhaes C, Chen B, Chen M, Kim J, Singh A, Ferreira CM, Castro AG, Torrado E, Jacobs WR Jr, Bhatt A, Saraiva M. (2018). A Nonribosomal Peptide Synthase Gene Driving Virulence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. mSphere. 3(5). PMCID: PMC6211224
8. Tiwari S, vanTonder AJ, Vilcheze C, Mendes V, Thomas SE, Malek A, Chen B, Chen M, Kim J, Blundell TL, Parkhill J, Weinrick B, Berney M, Jacobs WR Jr. (2018). Arginine-deprived-induced ozidative damage sterilizes Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PNAS. 115(39):9779-9784. PMCID: PMC6166831
9. Kennedy SC, Johnson AJ, Bharrham S, Linderstam Arlehamn CS, XU J, Garforth SJ, Chan J, Jacobs WR Jr, Settle A, Almo SC, Porcelli SA. (2018). Identification of Mycobacterial Ribosomal Proteins as Targets for CD4+ T Cells that Enhance Protective Immunity in Tuberculosis. Infection and Immunity. 86(9). PMCID: PMC6105890
10. Vilcheze C, Copelan J, Keiser, Weisbrod T, Washington J, Jain P, Malek A, Weinrick B, Jacobs WR Jr. (2018). Rational Design of Biosafety Level 2-Approved, Multidrug-Resistant Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis through Nutrient Auxothrophy. MBio. 9(3). PMCID: PMC5974470
11. Harbut MB, Yang B, Liu R, Yano T, Vilcheze C, Cheng B, Lockner J, Guo H, Yu C, Franzblau SG, Petrassi HM, Jacobs WR Jr., Rubin H, Chatterjee AK, Wang F. (2018). Small Molecules Targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis Type II NADH Dehydrogenase Exhibit Antimycobacterial Activity. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 57(13):3478-3482. PMCID: PMC6066186
12. Vilcheze C, Weinrick B, Leung LW, Jacobs WR Jr. (2018). Plasticity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis NADH dehydrogenases and their role in virulence. PNAS. 115(7):1599-1604. PMCID: PMC5816213
13. Vilcheze C, Kim J, Jacobs WR Jr. (2018). Vitamin C potentiates the killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the first-line tuberculosis drugs isoniazid and rifampicin in mice. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. PMCID: PMC5826150
14. Burn, C., Ramsey, N., Garforth, S.J., Almo, S., Jacobs, W.R., Jr. and Herold, B.C. (2018). An HSV-2 single-cycle candidate vaccine deleted in glycoprotein D, DeltagD-2, protects male mice from lethal skin challenge with clinical isolates of HSV-1 and HSV-2. J Infect Dis. PMCID: PMC5853290
15. Retamal-Diaz, A., Weiss, K.A., Tognarelli, E.I., Freire, M., Bueno, S.M., Herold, B.C., Jacobs, W.R., Jr. and Gonzalez, P.A. (2017). US6 Gene Deletion in Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Enhances Dendritic Cell Function and T Cell Activation. Front Immunol. (8)1523. PMCID: PMC5686121