Ann Stock Zakaria is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Resident Faculty Member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. Ann obtained an A.B. in Biochemistry (1979) and Ph.D. in Comparative Biochemistry (1986) from the University of California at Berkeley and pursued postdoctoral studies at Princeton University and Brandeis University as a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellow and a Lucille P. Markey Scholar. She joined the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University in 1991. Ann served as Interim Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine from 2013-2019. She currently chairs the Rutgers University Committee on Academic Planning.
Her research interests focus on bacterial signal transduction and the molecular mechanisms that allow cells to elicit adaptive responses to changes in their environments. She participated in the discovery and characterization of a fundamental two-component phosphotransfer mechanism, now known to mediate the majority of bacterial signaling. Her current research focuses on understanding how specific features of signaling pathway architecture provide regulation of gene expression that is optimized for the specific needs of individual systems. This research enables therapeutic strategies to promote beneficial host-microbe interactions and to develop new antibiotics to combat infectious disease.
Ann's research has been supported by NIH and NSF funding, an NIH MERIT award (2003-2013) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1994-2011). She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2006) and the American Academy of Microbiology (2007).
Ann currently serves as co-director of the Rutgers Graduate Training Program in Biotechnology. Her educational activities have been recognized by designation as UMDNJ Master Educator and American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Education Fellow, in addition to other teaching and mentoring awards. Ann has served on the Education and Professional Development Committee of the ASBMB and the Training and Career Development Subcommittee of the Science Policy Committee of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). She currently serves as editor for Journal of Bacteriology, as member of the advisory board and editorial board for PLoS Biology and as a member of the Cell Signaling section for Faculty of 1000.
Ann and her husband Arshad Zakaria reside in New Vernon.