Dr. Vanessa Jacoby is a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research, and Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She is a clinical researcher with a focus on improving care for people with uterine fibroids. She has conducted multiple clinical trials of new, minimally invasive treatments for people with fibroids including MR Guided Focused Ultrasound, laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation, and aromatase inhibitors. Dr. Jacoby's work has also focused on long-term health outcomes following hysterectomy and oophorectomy, particularly for people who are carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 pathogenic variants who undergo risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy.
With the onset of COVID-19, Dr. Jacoby worked with a multi-disciplinary group of collaborators to launch the PRIORITY study, a nationwide study of pregnant people and their newborns with COVID-19 (priority.ucsf.edu). Analyses from PRIORITY identified the persistence of COVID-19 symptoms in 25% of people infected during pregnancy. This work has led to further study of long-term outcomes following COVID-19 infection during pregnancy in the RECOVER study (recovercovid.org).
Dr. Jacoby’s research has been driven by patient-centered outcomes, community partnerships, and recruitment of underrepresented study populations. She is the director of the CTSI Participant Recruitment Program (recruit.ucsf.edu) to support recruitment of diverse populations into clinical studies across UCSF. She is also a dedicated mentor involved in many research training programs at UCSF including the CTSI K Scholars Program, the K12 Women's Reproductive Health Research Program (WRHR), and the ARCHES program for faculty from historically excluded groups (archesprogram.ucsf.edu).