This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Solvable.

I'm Jacob Weisberg.

I learned not to deal in limitation, not to deal in obstacles, but rather to deal in possibility.

Out of nearly 2,000 high school students, Deja Taylor was recently named one of the 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Scholar Program.

She was awarded $25,000 for her work with beat-died sutures to detect surgical site infections.

I decided to create my project around the developing countries because they are disproportionately

affected by surgical site infections specifically.

According to the WHO, patients with surgical site infections

are twice as likely to spend time in an intensive care unit,

five times more likely to be readmitted after discharged,

and twice as likely to die.

Deja Taylor is 17 years old.

She heard about those numbers and decided she could do something about it. My name is Deja Taylor is 17 years old. She heard about those numbers and decided she could do something about it.

My name is Deja Taylor, and I go to Iowa City West High School.

And I think the problem of surgical site infections in developing countries can be solved.

Tell me about your project. How does it work?

So our skin is naturally acidic, having a pH of around five.

But when our wounds are infected, that pH increases to eight or higher.

For my project, I decided to create color-changing sutures. And in order to

make them change color, I had to find a natural indicator, which is something that changes color

when the pH changes. So I put two of these principles of science together to create my color-changing sutures. And the natural

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