Local students’ abstract presented at 2020 American Society of Human Genetics virtual meeting

Rancho Santa Fe 11th grade students at Pacific Ridge School, Brandon Shen, Carlee Weber and Brandon Powell, along with David Scuba (11th grade) and Daniel Scuba (12th grade) at Torrey Pines High School (all part of robotics team FTC Singularity and R. Roger Rowe alumni) had an abstract presented at the 2020 American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) virtual meeting held Oct. 27-30. Their poster was in the “Late Breaking Posters on COVID-19” session.

David Scuba

(Courtesy)

Their abstract, “Design and Testing of 3D-Printed Mid-turbinate Nasal Swabs for SARS-CoV2 Sample Collection”, was the only poster that was led by high school students among the 34 other presenters that got selected. The teenagers designed and tested 3D printed mid-turbinate nasal swabs with different tips to see which tip had the highest liquid retention. Among eight different tip designs, the highest performing tip was a tip with a wavy design, whose large openings with large cavities enabled high liquid retention and collection.

Brandon Shen

(Courtesy)

With the shortage of commercially-produced nasal swabs earlier in the pandemic, the teenagers started a GoFundme to 3D print nasal swabs after looking at the most common nasal swab designs out in the market. Later, it evolved into a research project for them to 3D print their designs which eventually they tested for how much liquid retention occurred by recording the difference in swab weights before and after by dipping in water.

Brandon Powell

(Courtesy)

Carlee Weber

(Courtesy)

Daniel Scuba

(Courtesy)

The project was funded by donors from GoFundMe: gf/u/xywsd3 and supported by FORECAST 3D Prototype & Production.