Cells, Cells, and more Cells by Jessica Z. '27

Hello! It has been a really long time since I posted :’) My goal is to hopefully catch these blogs up to my current life, but instead of starting from the last time I blogged, I think I’ll start with where I am right now:

Right now, I’m in my junior year, and something I’ve been thinking about a lot is my major, Course 20: Biological Engineering. My classes before this semester were a mix of GIRs⁠01 General Institute Requirements and Course 7⁠02 Biology classes to get my pre-reqs completed, so I didn’t take my first Course 20-specific class until sophomore spring with 20.110⁠03 Thermodynamics of Biomolecular Systems .

This semester, though, I’m taking:

• 7.06: Cell Biology
• 20.109: Laboratory Fundamentals in Biological Engineering
• 20.320: Analysis of Biomolecular and Cellular Systems
• 15.069: Applied Probability and Statistics
• 17.903: Political Science Internship and Research

7.06: Cell Biology

Something that felt has difficult for me at MIT before is that I’m not very interested in genetics or cells, which is a pretty big focus here. I’m more interested in biomaterials and tissue engineering, which definitely has pockets at MIT, but usually isn’t the focus of the Course 7 classes I’ve taken so far. Taking 7.06 this semester made me nervous because 1) I didn’t think I’d enjoy learning about cells and 2) the pre-reqs are 7.03 and 7.05⁠04 Genetics and General Biochemistry , both of which I enjoyed as classes but struggled with.

So, I was pleasantly surprised that I like this class! The content is much more intuitive to me than 7.03 or 7.05, and it’s cool to really contextualize every biological function within the context of a super, super tiny cell. It’s also a pre-req for 7.23/20.230⁠05 Immunology , 7.26⁠06 Molecular Basis of Infectious Disease , and 7.371/20.371⁠07 Biological and Engineering Principles Underlying Novel Biotherapeutics , which I’m hoping to take in the spring semester and my senior year.

20.109: Laboratory Fundamentals in Biological Engineering

I didn’t do research at all last year, since I spent my sophomore year in the depths of RingComm and the summer working in science policy in D.C. This class was my first lab class, and it’s split into two research project modules with wet-lab work. To be completely honest, the only wet-lab technique I completely remembered how to do was dilutions and pipetting, so I was a bit nervous at first. I really had to force myself the first few weeks to get over my fear of looking clueless in class, but it felt really, really nice to dip back into research. Our first project focused on quantifying DNA damage with two different biochemical assays, and the second project was focused on peptide engineering to capture heavy metal ions for quantum dot formation. Working in wet-lab again through this class was honestly a huge factor in me UROPing this year, which I’m not sure I would have done otherwise.

This class is also a CI-M! I really like science communication⁠08 fun fact, Ceri (who helps run the MIT Admissions blogs and helps all the bloggers blog), works a lot in science communication, and I thought her work was really cool, which is part of why I wanted to apply to be a blogger :') (in the least stalker-ish way possible) , so it’s also been fun to learn more about scientific design and writing.

20.320: Analysis of Bimolecular and Cellular Systems

This class is, by far, my hardest. It’s a mix of differential equations, computational modeling, thermodynamics, and physics, all of which are not my strong suit. It focuses on modeling different biological systems, like receptor trafficking, bioreactors, and gene expression. I have a love-hate relationship with this class–I’ve battled A LOT with code in this class, but I think the teaching staff and TAs are really, really good, so it feels extra rewarding when I’m actually able to solve a PSET problem.

It’s (kinda) funny that I’ve technically been Course 20 the earliest I could have been, since I applied to MIT as a Course 20, but this is the first semester where I’ve really felt like a student in my major. My classes have pulled together all the scattered pieces of my pre-reqs from biology, chemistry, and math into something that feels more like biological engineering.

I spent a lot of sophomore year being really frustrated in classes because I wasn’t enjoying them as much as I had hoped or thought I should have. That made it difficult to feel like I was pursuing a major that I ultimately wanted, so it’s really exciting to be excited about classes again after a really, really long slump. I have a lottttt of thoughts about courses, classes, and post-grad plans, but for right now, I’m happy to feel more like I’ve found my place a little bit more as a student.