The STARS Summer Research Program gives science teachers and students an opportunity to work in a research environment.  During the summer of 2003, 5 secondary science teachers from around the state of Texas, 1 community college teacher, 5 high school juniors from the Dallas ISD, and 1 community college student started an eight-week summer internship working in research laboratories on the UT Southwestern Campus and affiliated institutions. Under the guidance of a faculty host, participants complete a research project and present their findings at the end of the summer.

Charlene Cole Tarrant County College Host: Helmut Kramer, PhD. Center for Basic Neuroscience		Research in Dr. Krämer’s lab focuses on the genetic and molecular dissection of late endocytic trafficking. Charlene is screening Hook 2-M1 (hk2M1) clones using a two hybrid protein analysis.
Kara Durham Staley Middle School, Frisco Host: Robert Rawson, Ph.D. Molecular Genetics		Research in Dr. Rawson's lab focuses on the global control of lipid metabolism, which is coordinated at the level of transcription of the genes of lipid synthesis and uptake.  Kara is working on crosses with Drosophila melanogaster to screen for mutations in order to analyze the function of components of the SREBP pathway in both insects and mammals.
Lara Isbell McMath Middle School, Denton Host: Dorothy Mundy, Ph.D. Cell Biology		Research in Dr. Mundy's lab focuses on understanding at the molecular level how caveolae, as well as other lipid domains, compartmentalize signal transduction, thereby facilitating the integration of nutritional, mechanical and humoral information at the cell surface. Lara is working on finding the function of p62 by preparing vectors and comparing them to a cDNA library.This will identify the interactions of known proteins with p62.
Johnny McKenzie Forest Oak Middle School, Ft. Worth Host: Joseph Garcia, Ph.D., M.D. Internal Medicine, Cardiology		Research in Dr. Garcia's laboratory focuses on identifying genetic components involved in the vertebrate response to lowered tissue oxygen conditions (hypoxia), and defining the role of these genetic factors in whole animal adult physiology.  Johnny is using a mitochondrial respiration test to measure oxygen consumption of mitochondria isolated from knockout and wild type mice. The knockout mice lack a cellular protein responsible for responding to low oxygen and other stress conditions.
JD Stumpf Byrd Middle School, Duncanville Host: Linda Baker, M.D. Urology		Research in Dr. Baker's lab focuses on the developmental biology of the genitourinary tract at the molecular level...more specifically with Cryptorchidism & Hypospadias.  JD is working on screening for mutations in bidirectional signalling to find a genetic link in the samples.
Kim Wright The Winston School, Private Host: James Chao, M.D., Ph.D. Plastic Surgery		Research in Dr. Chao and Dr. Brown's laboratory focuses on advanced wound healing and tissue regeneration.  Kim is working on culturing adult stem cells (preadipocytes) and then using different media to coax them into specific development.
Ricardo Belmares Hillsboro High School, Hillsboro Hosted By: Mischa Machius, Ph.D.		Dr. Machius' laboratory is a UTSW core lab that collaborates with researchers on campus to illucidate the three-dimensional structure of proteins and protein complexes using x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR).  In addition, they employ a variety of biophysical techniques, combined with the power of mutagenesis studies, to investigate static and dynamic aspects of regulation, enzymatic mechanism, protein-protein interactions, and drug design.  Ricardo is working on purifying bacterial proteins involved in dimer repair of DNA.