Gergana Shipkovenska, PhD​

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Gergana was born in Bulgaria shortly before the fall of the communist state. She grew up on the Black sea, eating good food (airan and banitsa), terrorizing the neighbors and playing with the neighborhood strays. In high school she picked up an unlikely interest in science, which sent her far to the West and saved her neighbors from further misery. She made a four-year stop in the great old City of Oxford, where she read biochemistry, dined in medieval halls and went punting with friends. After consuming copious amounts of British cake, she eventually decided to doff her gown and sail further West to the great new-old city of Boston. In Boston, she pursued a PhD with the Moazed group at Harvard Medical School, studying chromatin inheritance in yeast. In 2020, she swapped yeast for mice and joined the Rajagopal group at MGH.

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What drew you to your field?

An interest in immunology.

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What do you do when you’re not in the lab?

Reading, walking, musing about life and science, and eating sweets.

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Describe Rajagopal lab culture in 3 words:

Engaging, enterprising, fun.