Gerta was born in Fier, Albania. She obtained her BSc degrees in Molecular Biology and Genetics, as well as a second major in Chemistry from Bosphorus University, Istanbul, Turkey. Gerta pursued her PhD in Biochemistry at MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at Dundee University, Scotland, UK in Prof. Carol MacKintosh’s lab. Gerta is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Brendan Mannings’s lab at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases.