Virginia Zakian is the Harry C. Wiess Professor in the Life Sciences in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.
[2] In 1975, Zakian completed her Ph.D. in Biology, her thesis was supervised by Joseph G. Gall and concerned "DNA replication in Drosophila.
"[2] Zakian served as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University from 1975–1976, during this time she conducted research on "animal virus replication" with Dr. AJ Levine.
[2] Zakian was awarded the Harry C. Wiess Professor in the Life Sciences in the Department of Molecular Biology in the year 2000, a position that she holds to this day.
"[3] Zakian's lab " uses a combination of genetic, biochemical, and cell biological approaches to identify proteins that affect telomeres and to determine their mechanism of action.
"[10] a team of researchers, including Zakian, found that "Pif1p-like helicases are found in diverse organisms, including humans" and that "Pif1p is the prototype member of a helicase subfamily"[1] The team proposed that "Pif1p-mediated inhibition of telomerase promotes genetic stability by suppressing telomerase-mediated healing of double-strand breaks.