Teens could improve way Lyme is detected, treated with classroom research

A team of public high school students in Georgia faced some skepticism when they decided to try to come up with a way to detect Lyme disease earlier. But the students at Lambert High School in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, pushed ahead with their idea, using the gene editing technology CRISPR, and took it to the iGEM competition, a sort of science Olympics, in Paris. iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine and the annual competition has been around for about 20 years. Now, scientists say the students' groundbreaking work could be a major breakthrough if further testing pans out. "We're doing something in our high school lab that could potentially have a huge impact for, like, millions of people. It's not like we're just saying, like, 'Oh. I'm just doing this little thing that might help my grade,'" said high school senior Claire Lee. "This thing could help save lives."What the team of students at Lambert came up withLee and her fellow students work as teenage genetic engineers at their high school lab, manipulating the building blocks of life. The students there, led this year by team captains Sean Lee and Avani Karthik, have been working on synthetic biology, a field that combines biology with engineering, genetics and computer science. To compete at iGEM, teams need to use synthetic biology to solve real-world problems. For their project, students at Lambert focused on using CRISPR to target Lyme, a disease that affects nearly half a million Americans annually. The teens set their sights on finding a better way to detect and treat it – something that's eluded adult scientists for decades. Current tests make it difficult to detect Lyme in the first two weeks, which is when it's easiest to treat.Left untreated, Lyme can cause arthritis, nerve damage and heart problems. "One of the biggest problems with Lyme is the lack of, like, being able to diagnose it," Karthik said. "So a lot of people will go years, like, we've met someone who went 15 years without a diagnosis."Students at Lambert zeroed in on a protein generated by the Lyme infection in hopes of better and earlier detection. CRISPR is a tool that allows them to target specific strands of DNA and cut those away. By getting rid of extraneous genetic material, they hoped to expose the protein. Then the protein could be highlighted with a simple, kit-style test – like a COVID-19 or pregnancy test. This was all done using a simulated blood serum.They were also going to use a different form of CRISPR for treatment. Current therapies for Lyme use antibiotics, but patients can develop resistance to those drugs, so the students planned to use CRISPR to block the bacteria. That was the plan. But the team faced some doubt. "This project in particular, I warned them: this is very high risk, high reward," said their biotechnology teacher Kate Sharer. She said she told them she couldn't imagine "any of this working," but that she was happy to help them as much as she could. She wasn't the only skeptic. "We did reach out to a bunch of different professors and stakeholders who gave feedback on our project, and they did tell us in the beginning that this might not be so feasible because you're trying to tackle such a big thing," team co-captain Sean Lee said. But the Lambert High School team had advantages, beyond audacity and brainpower. Their lab, funded by Forsyth County, Georgia, taxpayers, as well as corporate donors, is college-level. And the school is in one of Georgia's most affluent, high-achieving school districts. Lambert's student body is majority Asian-American, and the iGEM team this year was entirely Asian-American, almost all the children of immigrants.Some parents move their families to the district from around the state and the world, just so their kids can try to get into the iGEM program. It's competitive. About 100 students compete for roughly 10 spots on Lambert's iGEM team each year. Applicants submit a project proposal, take a test and are interviewed. Having a special skill like engineering or coding doesn't hurt. Students need to be willing to put in insanely long hours.Send a secure tip to 60 Minutes: Here's how to confidentially share information with our journalistsAfter months of research and testing, Lambert's team began to show signs of success in the lab. That was in September, just weeks away from their deadline. Their testing showed the ability to detect Lyme as early as two days after infection – far sooner than the two weeks with existing tests. What they found was proof of concept; much more testing would be needed to see if this can work on human blood. The competition As the October deadline for Paris approached, the team pulled all-nighters to finalize their project and summarize their results. They coded and built a website explaining their project to the iGEM judges. They landed in Paris in late October for the competition, which drew more than 400 teams from around the world – a third of them high school students.In all, 14 of the high school teams came from the U.S., according to Janet Standeven, who runs iGEM's international high school division. There were 120 teams there from Asia. One team, from Great Bay in Shenzhen, China, developed a new enzyme for treating indoor mold. Other high school projects included designing crops to grow on Mars and developing eye drops to treat cataracts. Standeven, who taught at Lambert and created its iGem program, even helping the school win the grand prize in 2022, wants to see the program in every American high school. She left Lambert three years ago after securing federal funding to build synthetic biology programs in high schools all across Georgia. But the Trump administration cut the money earlier this year, claiming it fell under diversity, equity and inclusion. A judge temporarily restored the funding, but Standeven said she's not sure it will extend beyond May 2026.Standeven was devastated when the funding was cut. "Absolutely devastated. I was angry," she said. "I think anybody that's involved in this work at the high school level realizes this is necessary work."America's lead in the field of synthetic biology is slipping, while China's made it a national priority, according to Stanford professor and iGEM co-founder Drew Endy. "It's urgent that leadership of the next generation of biotechnology has a strong presence in America and it's represented by young American leaders," Endy said. In Paris, Endy saw promise in the Lambert students' work. "This year they appear to have developed a better diagnostic for Lyme disease than anything I've seen before," Endy said. "It's not only applicable to Lyme disease, but anything you could find in your blood."But it wasn't enough for the team from Georgia to take the top spot. The grand prize this year went to China's Great Bay. Lambert, which was nominated in five categories, took the win for best software tool. And it finished in the high school top 10. Lambert was the only American team to finish there. The top 10 was rounded out by a team from South Korea and another from Taiwan. The rest were all teams from China.