The Basic Science Symposia have been an integral part of STARS since its inception. In fact, it was the overwhelming success of the very first symposium, “DNA in Biology and Medicine,” that ultimately led to the development of STARS.

The symposia are presented by UT Southwestern Medical Center faculty and cover a variety of current topics in biomedical research. In order to help teachers infuse this up-to-date information into the classroom, specific learning activities are developed by STARS staff to accompany each symposium. 

Due to increasing demand, the Basic Science Symposia has recently been expanded to include two six-hour symposia and four two-hour “mini-symposia” each school year. Many teachers use these sessions to help fulfill state certification and school district requirements for professional development.

2019–20 Symposia Schedule

2019 Symposia

• September 9, 2019
  “New Horizons in Protein Translation”
  Mini-Symposium

          Matt Sieber, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Physiology   

          Ben Weaver, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pharmacology

• October 26, 2019
  “Recent Advances in Cancer Research and Treatment”
  Basic Science Symposium

• November 4, 2019
  “How Mitosis Really Happens”
  Mini-Symposium

          Jeff Woodruff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cell Biology, Biophysics

          Hongtao Yu, Ph.D., Professor, Pharmacology

2020 Symposia

• January 6, 2020
  “How We Balance Cholesterol”
  Mini-Symposium

          Russell DeBose-Boyd, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular Genetics

          Arun Radhakrishnan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Molecular Genetics

• February 29, 2020
  “Women in Science & Medicine Symposium” – Careers for Women in Biomedicine
  Special-Symposium

• April 6, 2020
  “So Many Ways to Die!”
  Mini-Symposium

          John Abrams, Ph.D., Professor, Cell Biology

          Zhigao Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology

2019–20 Teacher In-services

Saturday, December 7, 2019

“Biology Labs Made Easy”

Barbara Fishel, Ph.D., The Hockaday School

Hilary Hillary Kasbarian, Ph.D., Ursuline Academy of Dallas

Saturday, February 1, 2020

“Teaching CRISPR”

Daphne Rickard, Fort Worth ISD

Leigh Brown, Bio-Rad Laboratories

Register for an upcoming event using this online form.