I’m Jerry Chen, a student of the University of Toronto at the St. George campus. I am currently enrolled in the Molecular Genetics Specialist program, as well as a Statistics and Computer Science Minor. I have strong interests in molecular biology , medical sciences, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and many more that I will elaborate in this page. See the side table of contents to easily navigate to relevant sections.
Ever since I was young, I was deeply interested in science and its frontiers.
Beginning with astronomy in early elementary school, developing into biochemistry
throughout middle school, and finally settling on molecular biology and genetics
during high school, I have dedicated much of my academic career to the pursuit of
knowledge within the Life Sciences. My dream is to decrease the presence of
suffering in the world through the advancement of the Life Sciences.
In high school, I took as many AP courses in the sciences as I could, including
Biology, Chemistry, Physics 1 and 2, Psychology, Computer Science, and Calculus.
Now, at UofT, I have been able to pursuit this passion in the form of rigorous
academic courses. In my first year, I took the main Life Science stream courses,
including enriched equivalents of chemistry and math (i.e. CHM151 and MAT137).
Having enjoyed BIO130, I found first year to be profoundly insightful, and it
solidified my dedication to research within molecular biology. So, I applied to the
Molecular Genetics Specialist program in the spring, and was accepted.
In my first year, I became acquainted with a myriad of laboratory techniques,
including:
In the summer of 2025, I decided to become familiar with more laboratory techniques, including:
To ensure I properly understood these techniques, I made a short video for each one
explaining the motivation, mechanism, methodogy, and applications.
After planning out my degree, I realized that 20 credits, three programs, and four
years is too little to encapsulate all of my interests. At first, I contemplated
taking additional years, but for financial reasons, decided otherwise. Instead, I
dedicated myself to self-studying all the topics that I would not have the time to
take a course for (see self-study section). My intention with learning various
topics is to provide myself with a wide breadth of knowledge within the Life,
Statistical, and Computer Sciences to further the frontier of molecular biology
and genetics.
Although I had not been particularly interested in mathematics during Secondary school, I
developed a strong interest for mathematical theory and applications after MAT137 and
MAT223, which are Calculus with proofs and linear algebra I respectively. Moreover, I
originally planned on enrolling in a computer science major along with a life science
program, and thus took CSC148 and CSC165 as well. Although I am no longer pursuing a
computer science degree at UofT, I am still planning on learning programming skills to
aid in my productivity in research and everyday life. I believe that honing in on my
mathematical skills will aid my pursuits in Life Science, as there is particularly large
overlap with bioinformatics and statistical analysis.
I have done very little in terms of statistics during high school. Although I self studied
AP Statistics during the summer of my 3rd year of high school, I did not take the exam and
thus my qualifications for statistics is weaker than my other mathematics. That being said,
I believe statistics is the most significant mathematical science for molecular genetics,
especially when it comes to topics such as genetic analysis or bioinformatics. Thus, I am
planning on enrolling in a statistics major in my 2nd year, and I am self-studying python
data analysis libraries during the 2025 summer, including NumPy, Pandas, and MatPlotLib.
By the end of summer 2025, I hope to have a working understanding of bioinformatics tools
and data analysis libraries that will aid me in my research career.
BIO120H1 and BIO130H1
These are the first year biology courses required for all students in the Life
Science stream. I greatly enjoyed learning about the process of transcription
and translation in detail, as well as the inner functioning of the cell and its
life cycle. Although BIO130 was the highlight of my first year, BIO120 was still
very insightful, as it highlighted the nuances in natural selection and the
relationship (or, sometimes, lack thereof) between form in function in nature.
MAT137Y1
This is the first year math course for most students in math adjacent disciplines
(e.g. actuarial science, computer science, statistics, etc.), as well as for math
majors. Although the time I spent on this course exceeded that of all my other
courses combined, the problem solving, derivation of equations, and application
of calculus to both real and abstract problems gave me an extremely enriching
experience I never thought was possible in mathematics. Since I enjoyed the content
MAT137 covered, I am planning to take the continuation of the course in second
year, MAT237.
CHM151Y1
This is the first year chemistry course for chemistry specialists. Although
CHM135/136 was recommended for Life Science students, having done AP Chemistry, I
thought that the additional topics covered in CHM151 would be more beneficial. I
enjoyed the organic chemistry portion greatly, particularly synthetic and catalytic
reactions, and it encouraged me to take the higher level second year organic
chemistry course (CHM249). However, the physical chemistry portion was not as
rigorous as I would have liked, so I am taking physical chemistry for chemistry
students in second year (CHM222) rather than the one recommended for Life Science
students.
MAT223H1 and MAT224H1
These are the linear algebra courses offered for those not in the math specialists programs.
I enjoyed these courses greatly, particularly MAT223 due to its excellent coordination.
After MAT224, I have become proficient in foundational skills in linear algebra,
including many calculations or theorems involving matrices, eigenvalues/eigenvectors,
diagonalization, orthogonality, complex numbers, and canonical forms. In the future,
I plan to create projects that use these concepts, ranging from a creating a
scientific calculator to algorithms using machine learning and and other
statistical methods.
CSC148H1 and CSC165H1
These are the first year foundational computer science courses for computer science
students. Originally, I had planned to do a computer science major along with a
life science specialist. Although I was accepted into the program, I decided not to
pursue it, as I believed that a statistics major would be more appropriate to
complement my molecular genetics specialist. That being said, the courses honed my
python skills and improved my proof writing, which helps in all logic-based courses.
Most importantly, the application of data structures (e.g. trees, stacks, and
queues) have convenient and interesting uses in disciplines outside of computer
science, such as phylogenetics. Outside of university, I am still planning to pursue
computer science in the forms of projects and self-studying.
MAT246H1
This is a course in abstract mathematics, taken originally because I wanted to keep
my options open for a math major. Since I decided not to pursue a math degree, it
now serves as an elective course, but learning about modular arithmetic, the
construction of the integers, combinatorics, and why the size of the real numbers
is larger than the natural numbers, was still very fulfilling.
ECO101H1 and ECO102H1
These are the first year courses for economics students. These courses were taken
to act towards my breadth requirements. Although not directly in my field of study,
learning about the science behind economies was still very interesting. A
particularly interesting topic in ECO101 was the implications perfect competition
has on society and how capitalist systems, a system that works well on paper, can
fail and lead to inefficient economies in which more people are worse off than they
should be. In ECO102, ________
CLA201H1
This is a course in latin and greek terminology in science, also taken to act
towards my breadth requirements. This course was incredibly useful, as I memorized
over 1000 Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots. As a result, my ability to
comprehend research articles has become much easier, particularly when it comes to
learning new terms quickly.
After planning my degree, I realized that the number of topics I would like to learn
exceeds the courses I can take in a 4-year Undergrad. Rather than taking a 12-year
BSc or 12 courses per semester, I came to a compromise:
During my Undergrad, I would enroll in the courses/programs that would provide me with the
necessary academic environment (i.e. professors, TAs, examinations, etc) I would find much
harder to replicate through self-study. These topics include advanced
statistics/mathematics, molecular genetics/biology, and biochemistry, which is why I have
decided to enroll in the Molecular Genetics Specialist and Statistics Major programs.
As for the other topics I am interested in, I would self-study those topics during the
summers between each academic year, and create academic resources on the parts I
found most difficult or dense (and hence, the motivation for the resources page on
my website). These topics include bioinformatics, anatomy, physiology, pathology,
neuroscience, immunology, machine learning, and data science.
By no means do I find any of these topics simple. If I could, I would have applied for a
septuple specialist in all the fields, including my own. Of course, I can't (nor want)
to do that, so this is the best compromise I have come up with. My ultimate goal is
to have a wide breadth of knowledge that will give me new perspectives during my
research career.
At first, I was simply interested in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and thought that developing a personal website was a meaningful way to apply that knowledge. However, I realized that a website allows me to organize my ambitions, accomplishments, and hobbies into a passion project that would serve as a hub to display the things that make up my intellectual and academic life. As a result, this website contains research blogs, self-created academic resources, piano recordings, projects in computer science, and more.