Year 1

The CIRM- STAR High School Summer Research and Creativity Program is an 8-week summer science research experience. CIRM-STAR Program is conducted at the USC Health Science campus and is integrated with USC’s existing STAR Summer Research Program. The CIRM-STAR Program focuses on stem cell and developmental biology. In the first week of the program, students engage in a 5-day stem cell course that prepares them for conducting leading edge stem cell research. CIRM-STAR summer interns join research teams of the CIRM USC Broad Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Here CIRM-STAR interns conduct ground breaking research as a member of a scientific team that includes USC faculty,CIRM pre-doctoral, postdoctoral and clinical fellows and CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell Research interns. In addition to their research endeavors, CIRM-STAR interns participate in weekly forums including:

Week 1 Stem Cell Techniques course Ethics and oversight of stem cell research

Week 2 Bioinformatics and literature assessment

Week 3 Developing a professional science career, communication skills, networking

Week 4 Intellectual property, biotech industry, regulatory affairs

Week 5 Stem cell therapies, the media, public policy and perception

Week 6 Scientific writing and presentation skills

Week 7 CIRM-STAR Colloquium: CIRM-STAR Intern research presentation to parents, mentors and research teams.

Week 8 CIRM-sponsored Poster Day at Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

CIRM/STAR summer intern projects:
Elivia Ahmed, Allopregnanolone Analog Regulation of Neural Stem Cell Proliferation.
Mahuya Barua, Examination of the Ability of Gbx2 to Convert Epiblast Stem Cells to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.
Brian Tom, Gene Influence on the Development of Germ Layers in Mouse.
Wisia Wong, Xeno-free Cyropreservation of Human Amniotic Epithelial Cells.
Elton Zhou, Presence of Oct-4 Expressing Cells within Fetal Mouse Amnion.
Yinh Li, Epithelial – Mesenchymal Transition and Cancer Stem Cells in Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
Jung Min Lee, Epigenetic Regulation of NANOG in Tumor-Initiating Stem Cells.
Stephanie Felix, The Effects of Cell Culture Medium on HESC-Derived RPE Cell Differentiation.
Jennifer Lam, Differentiation of Alvelolar Epithelial Cells.
Nicole Thach, Generation of Transgenic Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Rats.

CIRM-STAR 2012 Interns have been accepted into prestigious research universities including University of Southern California (USC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),Princeton University, Williams College
UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Berkeley.

Several CIRM-STAR students received Questbridge Awards and are finalists for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program