• Jerri Chen

  • About Me

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    Jerri is a pediatric anesthesiology fellow in New York City.

    A list of foods she enjoys eating includes, but is not limited to: poached eggs, dosas in Washington Square Park, grilled cheese sandwiches, and pie. When not eating, she can be found cooking, because it leads to more eating.

  • Education

    Jerri graduated in 2013 with an M.D. and Ph.D. from the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Somewhere in those eight years she spent in the program, she also received an M.S.

    Jerri went to Wellesley College for her undergraduate education, where she majored in neuroscience and spent so much time in the music department that everyone assumed she also majored in music. Her CV says she received a Bachelor of Arts in 2005, but technically, it’s an Artium Baccalaureae because her entire diploma is in Latin.

    A native New Yorker, Jerri attended Hunter College High School of the City University of New York, which is in fact a high school and not a college or university.

  • Research

    Jerri began her research career at Wellesley College, where she studied a cardiac potassium channel in goldfish that activates under low-oxygen conditions, thereby protecting cardiac cells and saving said goldfish from certain doom.

    Jerri then continued her exploration of cardiac potassium channels at Einstein. She studied a channel that is crucial for the heart's ability to adapt to increased heart rates during exercise. Congenital mutations in this channel can lead to Long QT Syndrome, a disorder that leaves patients susceptible to arrhythmias that can result in fainting and sudden cardiac death.

    In 2009, Jerri was awarded an individual pre-doctoral NIH grant for her research by the National Heart Lung Blood Institute.

    To see a list of her peer-reviewed publications, please click on this link to Pubmed.

    Jerri loves potassium channels so much that she even played one on TV. Well, OK it was a YouTube video, where she and her medical school classmates did an interpretive dance of an action potential moving down a neuron. For her role, she symbolically threw bananas out of a Node of Ranvier. Her second choice would have been to play a calcium channel, throwing pints of milk into the synaptic bouton. Perhaps another day.

  • Fun

    Not that work isn't fun, but there are other things in life to enjoy!


    Music

    Jerri has been singing in choirs ever since found herself bored after school one day in the 7th grade and followed a friend to rehearsal. She sang in several groups in high school and with the Wellesley College Choir in college. After returning to New York City, she joined the Cecilia Chorus of New York in 2007, and is still thrilled by every performance in Carnegie Hall.


    Martial Arts

    Jerri has always secretly wanted to be a ninja, and was delighted to discover a Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do club at Einstein. She kicked and punched her way to a 1st degree black belt, and is happy that she graduated from Einstein with one more degree than initially expected.


    Running

    Continuing the theme of embarking on new athletic endeavors as an adult, Jerri ran her first 5k race at her first ASA meeting. Goal for fellowship year: half marathon!

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