Faculty Members at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Elected to National Academy of Sciences

May 1, 2013 – (BRONX, NY) – Two faculty members at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Robert Singer, Ph.D., and William Jacobs, Jr., Ph.D., were among the select scientists who will be inducted into the Washington-based organization at a ceremony in April 2014.

William Jacobs, Jr., Ph.D., Robert Singer, Ph.D.“Bill Jacobs’ and Rob Singer’s election to the National Academy of Sciences is a richly deserved honor that reflects the extraordinary discoveries each has made,” said Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein. “We are proud to have scientists of their caliber on our faculty.”

Dr. Singer, professor and co-chair of anatomy and structural biology, is a world leader in developing novel methods for investigating the most fundamental processes in living cells: how the message encoded in the DNA of genes is transcribed into RNA and then translated into proteins. His lab developed the FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization), a widely used technology to visualize and isolate individual molecules of RNA in a single cell, and was the first to establish that each RNA strand has a non-coding region that determines it’s “zip code” in the cell. Dr. Singer is also co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center and of the Integrated Imaging Program and holds the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Anatomy and Structural Biology.

Dr. Jacobs, professor of microbiology & immunology, is pioneering the use of molecular genetics to control tuberculosis (TB), which kills nearly two million people a year. His research is investigating the genes that make Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)—the bacterium that causes TB—virulent, identifying new drug targets and engineering weakened strains that can be used as live vaccines. Dr. Jacobs was the first scientist to introduce foreign DNA into MTB, a technique now regularly used by TB investigators around the world. He is also professor of genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator.

“Bill Jacobs' and Rob Singer’s election to the National Academy of Sciences is a richly deserved honor that reflects the extraordinary discoveries each has made. We are proud to have scientists of their caliber on our faculty.”

-- Dean Allen M. Spiegel, M.D.

Drs. Singer and Jacobs were two of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries who were elected to the academy in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those elected yesterday bring the total number of active members to 2,179 and the total number of foreign associates to 437. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and—with the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council—provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.