Dr. Paula M. Jacobs, Ph.D.
Dr. Jacobs received her undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduate degrees at Tufts University and Northeastern University. Her post-doctoral training was at Northeastern University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
In the Radiation Research Program she oversees extramural grants in radiation research, including external radiation therapy, radiation biology and radiopharmaceuticals for targeted radiation therapy.
She is a member of the FDA Medical Imaging Drugs Advisory Committee and of the steering/advisory committees for the Integrated Canine Data Commons, the Small Animal Imaging Program at Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and the NIBIB Medical Imaging Data Resource Center. She directs imaging studies in mice of patient derived xenograft cancer models.
Previously, she was Associate Director, Cancer Imaging Program, overseeing extramural grants in molecular imaging, nanotechnology, image guided interventions, imaging technology, and clinical trials in imaging. She focused on lowering the logistical and regulatory barriers to investigational use of PET radiopharmaceuticals, developed the Cancer Imaging Archive, a publicly available medical image archive with associated clinical meta-data for machine learning, and encouraged standardization of imaging techniques and quantitative image methods.
She joined the NCI after 30 years of diverse experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Her last industrial position was Vice President, AMAG Pharmaceuticals (now Covis Pharma) developing ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for MRI imaging and therapeutic iron drugs.
She has published in organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, magnetic resonance imaging, PET imaging, regulatory affairs, neuro-oncology, and nephrolgy.
Selected Publications
Gadolinium retention: a research roadmap from the 2018 NIH/ACR/RSNA workshop on gadolinium chelates
McDonald RJ, Levine D, Weinreb J, Kanal E, Davenport MS, Ellis JH, Jacobs PM, Lenkinski RE, Maravilla KR, Prince MR, Rowley HA, Tweedle MF, Kressel HY., Radiology, 2018, 289 (2), 517-534; 10.1148/radiol.2018181151
How advances in imaging will affect precision radiation oncology
Jaffray DA, Das S, Jacobs PM , Jeraj R, Lambin P, International Journal of Radiation Oncology* Biology* Physics, 2018, 101 (2), 292-298; 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2018.01.047
The use of published clinical study reports to support US Food and Drug Administration approval of imaging agents
D Rieves, P Jacobs, Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2016, 57 (12), 2022-2026; 10.2967/jnumed.116.178814
Consensus recommendations for a standardized Brain Tumor Imaging Protocol in clinical trials
Ellingson BM, Bendszus M, Boxerman J, Barboriak D, Erickson BJ, Smits M, Nelson SJ, Gerstner E, Alexander B, Goldmacher G, Wick W, Vogelbaum M, Weller M, Galanis E, Kalpathy-Cramer J, Shankar L, Jacobs P, Pope WB, Yang D, Chung C, Knopp MV, Cha S, van den Bent MJ, Chang S, Yung WK, Cloughesy TF, Wen PY, Gilbert MR; Jumpstarting Brain Tumor Drug Development Coalition Imaging Standardization Steering Committee, Neuro-oncology, 2015, 17 (9), 1188-1198; doi: 10.1093/neuonc/nov095
Superparamagnetic iron oxide: pharmacokinetics and toxicity
Am J Roentgenology. 1989 Jan;152(1):167-73. doi: 10.2214/ajr.152.1.167.
Additional links to Scientific Publications
Education
Post-doctoral Fellowships: Northeastern University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Northeastern University, Boston MA
M.S., Organic Chemistry,Tufts University, Medford MA
S.B., Chemistry, National Merit Scholar, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA