A group of high school students in Atlanta, Georgia, has created a new way to detect and potentially treat Lyme disease. Their discovery, which uses CRISPR-based gene-editing technology, is faster and more accurate than current methods of diagnosis, which often miss the disease in its earliest stage when it’s easiest to treat. Their project also uses CRISPR as a potential means of treating the disease through the bacteria that cause it. The students unveiled their invention at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition in France this October, where they finished in the top ten for high school students.

Lyme disease can infect humans and other animals through the bites of ticks that carry the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Symptoms inlclude arthritis, swollen joints, fever, and an initial rash. If left untreated the disease can become chronic, leading to potential organ damage. Lyme disease infects almost half a million Americans every year, primarily in the Northeast and Midwest.