Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA.

His research focuses on the life cycle of the malaria parasite in its obligate mosquito vector and in its mammalian host. His laboratory was the first to produce a genetically engineered mosquito that is refractory to the parasite. Presently his laboratory is exploring an alternative strategy by engineering bacteria that live in the mosquito gut to produce anti-malarial compounds. Other projects in the lab investigate mechanisms of parasite fertilization in the mosquito and mechanisms of sporozoite liver infection.

Dr. Jacobs-Lorena has over 170 publications in peer reviewed journals, has chaired for 6 years the World Health Organization Committee on Molecular Entomology and is on the editorial board of two scientific journals. In 2009 he was elected fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), in 2016 he was elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and in 2021 he received the Johns Hopkins Shikani/El Hibri Prize for Discovery and Innovation.