she completed her phd at mit in cell biology in 1975. she then went to harvard to conduct her postdoctoral research for three years, focusing on recombinant dna technology, under the supervision of fotis kafatos and tom maniatis. when cambridge banned such experiments in 1976, citing worries about public safety and the chance of unintentionally creating a new disease, villa-komaroff moved to cold spring harbor laboratory. while at cold spring harbor, she experienced repeated failures of her experiments; however, these disappointments taught her that “most experiments fail, and that scientists must accept failure as a part of the process”.