Bio

Robert S Jacobs received his undergraduate training from Northwestern University in Biology graduating in 1964. He concurrently served as a staff member in Pharmacology at GD Searle Co. and then Manager of The Pharmacology Discovery group. In 1968 he entered the PhD program in Pharmacology at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago earning the Ph.D. degree in 1971. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Loyola from 1971 until 1974 where he specialized in drug effects on neuromuscular junction. In collaboration with Prof. Joel Brumlick, Chairman of Neurology at Loyola, he developed a protocol for treating terminal myasthenia gravis patients. Jacobs received the William Peck Research Award in 1973 for that research. In 1974 he joined the Faculty at UCSB to participate in the formation of the undergraduate major in Pharmacology and began an investigation of marine natural products, particularly neurotoxins. This work eventually evolved to include studies of inflammation, cytotoxins and marine natural products for treating wounds.

Research

The overall goal in our lab is to utilize marine natural products as probes in studying the steps of certain molecular and cellular processes; specifically, cell cycle kinetics, synaptic transmission, and pain and inflammatory processes.

All of our research is oriented toward the study of cellular and molecular mechanisms of drug action. Studies include the investigation of marine toxins as well as new classes of natural products from marine invertebrates that inactivate the neurotoxins b-bungarotoxin, bee venom and cobra venom. These marine natural products are purified and identified in our laboratory and by collaborators at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Some of these nature products are potent activators of G-protein coupled receptors that interfere with cellular lysis, chemotactic responses, cellular recognition and inflammatory processes.

These investigations have also stimulated considerable basic research on ligand reactions with drug receptors, drug targeting and molecular modeling that evolved directly from our mechanism of action studies. In our laboratory, we continue to be a resource that serves as a stimulus for new research in organic chemistry, biochemistry and pharmacology. The approach that is used focuses on developing new avenues of investigation into inflammation. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of inflammatory diseases such as ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory diseases of the lung and heart; diseases of the bone and connective tissue and allergies. From a pharmacological perspective, we wish to also contribute to better understanding of drug resistance.

The approach to be used is multifaceted involving mammalian models as well as investigation of analogous processes in marine organisms. In the broadest sense all our methods and approaches involve simulation of molecular membrane, and cell and tissue reactions that lead to formation and release of oxidation products of arachidonic acid and the activation and release of lipase and proteolytic enzymes.

Recently we have focused on Caribbean gorgonians. These gorgonians constitute a diverse group of soft corals that are commonly known as sea whips and sea fans. A wide variety of them are found in great abundance in the shallow water reefs of the West Indian region. Several decades ago a group of faculty and students from the University of California along with participants from other institutions began an exploratory field research of marine populations at many locations and habitats throughout the world. The major chemical effort focused on organic solvent extractable constituents that were subsequently found to be a significant source of many diverse and novel compounds including steroids, prostaglandins, lactones, sesquiterpenoid derivatives, and diterpenoid metabolites. Many of these purified extracts were found to contain previously unknown chemical structures and others contained dimeric and polymeric forms in remarkable complexity; still others were metabolites of closely related animal or plant metabolites and hormones.

Overall several compounds from these studies and other labs have stimulated pharmaceutical interests and led to clinical trials.