This U.S. high school student used beets to create a possibly life-saving suture

This high schooler invented stitches that change colour to help detect infections Dasia Taylor is only 17-years-old, and shares how she came up with the idea.

TORONTO — Iowa high-schooler Dasia Taylor is winning acclaim and awards over an medical invention that has the potential to help millions: beet juice-infused sutures that change colour when in contact with an infected wound.

Iowa high-schooler Dasia Taylor came upon her scientific breakthrough not through any particular ambition to become the next great science pioneer, but by looking at a medical problem through a lens of cost and access.

She had read about new sutures that could detect the presence of infection using electricity, and then send the information to a smartphone.

“I thought to myself that that was awesome, that was a really great invention, but the people who could really use that technology and really benefit from monitoring certain things that go on in their body during wound healing wouldn't be able to afford this technology,” the 17-year-old told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday. “So I set out to create a cost effective suture that relies on the most basic scientific principles of pH.”

The solution she came up with – beet juice-infused sutures that change colour when a wound becomes infected – has earned her international recognition, and more importantly, shows promise for helping people in low and middle-income countries who develop infections after surgery.

Taylor came upon the idea as part of a class science fair project. With some online and lab research, she determined that beet juice changed colour when exposed to infected skin due to changes in pH. It’s a decidedly low-tech solution to the issue of surgical site infections, which according to the World Health Organization, threaten the lives of millions of people each year. In low and middle-income countries, 11 per cent of patients who undergo surgery develop infections.

The potential for helping people was the draw for Taylor, who has spent much of her time in high school focused not on science but on racial equity work in her community. She plans to move on to law school, but also continue with her burgeoning career in science.

“I really love the work that I do and the results that I see that occur in the school system and even in the community,” she said. “I believe that law school is the best way for me to combine both of those so I’ll still be able to exercise my racial equity work and continue my research.”

She’s now seeking a patent for her invention, has won science fair awards, and was named a finalist in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, considered the oldest and most prestigious U.S. high school math and science competition.

Asked if she had any advice for young scientists, she said the key was to ask questions.

“The only reason I was able to do something like that was because I was curious,” she said.

“I was curious enough to Google the things that I didn't know and humble enough to admit that I didn’t know these things. So if you are curious and humble and love to just kind of do things beyond that classroom, I definitely suggest that you get involved.”