Lexington High School senior Jerry Xu believes that science can be approached in two ways. The first is through a textbook; the second is by making it come to life around you.
Xu, 17, chose the second path. On March 10, he earned a $90,000 scholarship for placing fifth at the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors. Xu created an Artificial Intelligence model that compares the three-dimensional structure of proteins, the molecules that build and repair tissue in the human body. From more than 2,000 applicants, judges selected him as one of 40 finalists to present independent research at the Regeneron Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C.
Genetic and medical researchers compare protein structures to understand how molecules function. Small variations in shape can alter a protein’s behavior and trigger disease. Xu’s tool reduced the time needed to analyze proteins from hours to minutes by converting them into correlated numerical patterns of the same size, rather than the current methods, which compare proteins of different sizes.
Xu’s finish in the Regeneron competition is the highlight of a high school career defined by accomplishment. Last October, he led a team that created an AI chatbot that answers questions about the Lexington High School building project. He co-founded a summer lecture series that teaches biology and math to students of all ages, tutored programming students at the KTBYTE academy in Burlington, and captained the Lexington High School Science Bowl team to a regional championship.
“I think that as a high schooler, using [science] in my community is one of the easiest and most impactful ways for me to apply my knowledge,” Xu said. “I’m really grateful that the town of Lexington is willing to accept me and try to guide me towards designing these products that are going to help the community.”
Xu devoted the past year to researching, developing and coding his model through the MIT PRIMES Program, a year-long curriculum that offers research resources to high school students in the Boston area under the mentorship of Dr. Gil Alterovitz and Dr. Shaojun Pei, both of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“One thing that really struck me is [Jerry’s] passion, his ability to think about things deeply and think about how to explore things at a deep level,” Alterovitz said.
Xu hopes researchers and scientists will use his tool to improve protein genetic analysis. He plans to continue working on the model after the competition.
“There’s a couple of ideas that I have for my project. One of them is to expand the scale of my model,” he said. “There’s a lot of different directions that I want to explore with this project before I head off to college.”
Xu plans to use the $90,000 scholarship toward college. He’s considering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Yale University, and other schools. Before he makes his decision, Xu will prepare for the National Science Bowl in April and his approaching high school graduation.
This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Lexington Observer and other news organizations in the Boston area.