Gerta Hoxhaj, Ph.D.

Gerta Hoxhaj received her bachelor’s degree from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, with a double major in molecular biology and genetics and chemistry. She earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry and cell signaling from the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK, where she characterized a novel E3 ubiquitin ligase, ZNRF2, as a downstream effector of PI3K signaling. In 2013, Dr. Hoxhaj joined the laboratory of Dr. Brendan Manning at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she worked on understanding how oncogenic signaling influences cellular metabolism. Her work discovered new mechanisms that link PI3K-Akt-mTORC1 signaling with the control of nucleotide and redox metabolism.

In 2019, Dr. Hoxhaj joined the faculty of Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern and became a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar. Dr. Hoxhaj holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern. Since joining CRI, she has become a V Foundation Scholar, an American Cancer Society Scholar, a Pew Scholar and received the 2024 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.