Meet Jonathan

Jonathan Chen is a rising senior at Bentonville High School in Bentonville, Arkansas. His fascination with research began after reading The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson, where he was captivated by the remarkable ability of bacteria—incomprehensibly small, single-celled organisms—to store “memory.” This discovery lead to the development of CRISPR-Cas9, sparking his interest in the intersection of biology and technology.

Jonathan hopes to pursue research in bioinformatics, computational biology, or bioengineering, driven by his passion for how biological systems can be understood through computational approaches.

Jonathan loves photography and filming cinematic videos with his drone. You can check out his work on Instagram. @johnnyc.photography

As the concertmaster of his school’s chamber orchestra, he has performed across the nation, from San Diego to Saint Louis to Dallas. Jonathan also competes on his school’s tennis team, co-founded a nonprofit that organizes youth Chinese cultural performance, programs for his VEX robotics team, leads a Toastmasters public speaking club, and has achieved star seller status on his Etsy shop.

This summer, Jonathan and his partner Sihan worked in the Baliga lab under mentors Dr. Selva Rupa Christinal Immanuel and Dr. Mario Arrieta-Ortiz to characterize the adaptation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to external stimuli. Through implementing R pipelines to analyze and interpret high-throughput data of Mtb exposed to different carbon sources and antitubercular drugs, they were able to gain insight into the metabolic flexibility of the bacterium. Their work has implications for a more effective drug regimen for tuberculosis.