WASHINGTON — Temple Douglas grew up in the fields of Luckett, Virginia, where the ticks that cause Lyme disease lie in wait in the tall grass.
Her mother and brother struggled with the disease and before she was out of her teens, Douglas — an aspiring scientist — was fighting back.
She was a high school student on a summer internship at George Mason University when she learned researchers there were working on a new form of nanotechnology that they hoped could be used to detect early signs of cancer. Douglas suggested they use it to create a new test for Lyme.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Douglas said. “But I had an idea and I thought I would ask.”
Alessandra Luchini — one of the developers of the new nanotechnology — became her mentor, instructing the teenager in the intricacies of the lab. The summer internship took on a life of its own, with Douglas becoming a fixture in the laboratory in late afternoons and evenings. She would travel to Mason after her classes at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax, Virginia.
