Virginia A. Zakian
Professor
Molecular Biology
Princeton University
United States of America
Biography
Virginia A. Zakian is the Harry C. Weiss Professor in the Life Sciences in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. She received her B.S. in Biology from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Biology in 1975 for research carried out in the lab of Dr. Joseph G. Gall at Yale University. In 1979, after three years of post doctoral work (first at Princeton University with Dr. Arnold J. Levine in Biochemistry and then the University of Washington with Dr.Walton F. Fangman in Genetics), she started her own lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle WA. She became a tenured full professor in 1987. In 1995, she joined the faculty of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University where she is currently the Harry C. Wiess Professor in the Life Sciences where her research concerns chromosome structure and replication, with a focus on telomeres, the ends of chromosomes and replication fork progression through natural replication barriers. Throughout her career, she has been an advocate for women in science.
Research Interest
Genetics and Genomics
Publications
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McDonald KR, Guise AJ, Pourbozorgi-Langroudi P, Cristea IM, Zakian VA, Capra JA, et al., 2016, Pfh1 Is an Accessory Replicative Helicase that Interacts with the Replisome to Facilitate Fork Progression and Preserve Genome Integrity, J. PLoS Genet, 12
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Geronimo CL, Zakian VA, 2016, Getting it done at the ends: Pif1 family DNA helicases and telomeres, J. DNA Repair (Amst), 44, 151-8
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Tran PLan Thao, Pohl TJ, Chen C-F, Chan A, Pott S, Zakian VA, 2017, PIF1 family DNA helicases suppress R-loop mediated genome instability at tRNA genes, J.Nat Commun, 8, 15025.
