Finding STARS

Steven Mumm, PhD (left), research associate professor of medicine, works in his lab at the School of Medicine with Adela Cajic, a rising senior at Affton High School and a participant in the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program. STARS pairs academically talented high school juniors and seniors in the St. Louis area with scientists at five research institutions for a six-week apprenticeship in laboratories, including those on the Danforth Campus and Medical Campus. Students complete independent research projects and present them on the last day of the program. Cajic is working to find unique mutations in the PHEX gene for patients with X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets. Cajic’s family fled war-torn Bosnia in 1992 and moved to the United States in 1997. She hopes to attend Washington University and study to be a biomedical engineer.