Community Corner

Whiz Kids: Creve Coeur Area Students Were Summer "STARS"

Program offered high school students the chance to work on scientific areas of interest with Danforth Center and Monsanto researchers, among others.

What did you do over the summer? A handful of students with ties to Creve Coeur spent six summer weeks conducting intensive research with St. Louis-area professionals and professors with the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program at the University of Missouri, St. Louis (UMSL).  

“The students in the STARS program are getting a big head start,” said James Carrington, president of the in , in a statement. “For many of the participants, this experience will be the most important event in their decision to pursue a career in science.”

STARS introduces high school rising juniors and seniors to various aspects of science as practiced by scientists in academic, private or corporate research institutions. UMSL partners with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur, Saint Louis University, Solae and Washington University in St. Louis to provide research opportunities for the participants.

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The STARS students researched everything from neural circuits in the brain to the effects of early life stress on learning to improving satellite efficiency. Students also took part in career workshops, attended lectures by leading greater St. Louis scientists and enjoyed social activities such as bowling, a movie, an ice cream social, the St. Louis Symphony and a Cardinals game. 

“I was at UMSL pretty much every day, and twice a week in the mornings we would get together as a group, and in the afternoon we would go to various labs and do our research,” Maxwell said. “We also had guest research scientists from different universities and they would talk about what they do as scientists.”

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After applying and being selected for the program STARS students picked which projects they would be interested in studying and were paired with a mentor.

Fifty-three faculty members from the participating academic institutions, three scientists from Solae and five scientists from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center volunteered as mentors for STARS. After the six weeks of research, participants presented their research papers to their peers, parents and research mentors.  

Senior scientists at , Solae, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and LMI Aerospace/D3 Technologies reviewed the papers. Winning papers best exemplified the following qualities: difficulty and complexity of research; appropriateness of the research methodology, findings, quality of writing and overall quality of the research process.

The following students either attend a Creve Coeur area high school or worked with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Also listed is their area of interest and their project mentor.

Alexander P. Ganninger, , “The Effect of Ferritin Protein on the Expression of Hepatic BMP6”, Dr. Robert Fleming, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University.

Manali Gokhale, , “Verticle Nanowires as 3-D Substrates for Biosensing” Dr. Srikanth Singamaneni, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, Washington University. Whiz Kid watchers may remember for her work helping to organize an electronics recycling drive at school.

Gowri Kalugotla, MICDS, “Molecular Cloning and Characterization of EC_Contig5475, Potential Methyltransferase in Eschscholzia californica”, Dr. Toni Kutchan, Member and Oliver M. Langenberg Dustinguished Investigator, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

Christine Wang, , “Assessing Vaccine Compliance Among Non-Hospital Workers”, Dr. Terri Rebmann, School of Public Health, Saint Louis University.

Christopher Wang, , “Designing a Stereo-lithography Tool for Cell Sorting Applications”, Dr. Joshua Maurer, Dept. of Chemistry, Washington University.


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