This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection
After winning a state science fair and becoming a finalist in a national competition, Dasia Taylor now has her sights set on a patent
Dasia Taylor has juiced about three dozen beets in the last 18 months. The root vegetables, she’s found, provide the perfect dye for her invention: suture thread that changes color, from bright red to dark purple, when a surgical wound becomes infected.
The 17-year-old student at Iowa City West High School in Iowa City, Iowa, began working on the project in October 2019, after her chemistry teacher shared information about state-wide science fairs with the class. As she developed her sutures, she nabbed awards at several regional science fairs, before advancing to the national stage. This January, Taylor was named one of 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the country’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.
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2020 will always be identified with COVID-19. This coronavirus, consisting of less than three dozen proteins, is changing the world. The good news is that we humans are endlessly inventive. In response to COVID-19, we are sprinting to learn, innovate, and change our knowledge as needed.
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