For Tanishka Aglave, citrus greening isn’t simply a problem that exists in textbooks or agricultural research papers. She watched it take a toll on Florida citrus growers, including her own family, growing up. The disease has destroyed groves across the state, making what used to be a hallmark of Florida agriculture a hard fight for farmers. Aglave was 17 when she set out to attack that fight on multiple fronts at once. The IB senior at Strawberry Crest High School has come up with a three-pronged approach, which includes a treatment using curry leaves, a localized system for steam therapy, and an artificial intelligence tool to help growers track the disease, states an online report by the Davidson Institute website. Her work has earned her a $50,000 scholarship as a 2026 Davidson Fellow.A personal problem turns into a research projectCitrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing, is the most devastating disease of citrus worldwide. In Florida, it’s led to a dramatic decline in citrus production, straining the economy for growers and threatening an industry that is a hallmark of the state. Aglave’s research started with an odd observation of curry leaf plants, which can harbor the insect that spreads citrus greening without allowing the insect to effectively spread the disease. That finding led her to see if compounds in curry leaves might have properties useful against the bacteria associated with citrus greening. She developed a bactericide based on extract of curry leaves and tested its use by trunk delivery in infected citrus trees. But treatment was just part of the picture.Adding heat to a treatmentNext, Aglave developed a localized thermal therapy system, which aims to improve the treatment’s ability to move through a tree. Around the base, her system employs phase-changing materials and salt chemistries to generate persistent heat. The idea is that it encourages transpiration and increases sap flow through the plant’s vascular network, perhaps helping to distribute the treatment more efficiently. The idea was a lot of experimentation. The first extractions only yielded about 10%, so Aglave had to repeat the procedure many times to obtain enough material to test. She also had problems with the standard trunk-injection syringes, which could leak and damage young trees. While waiting for greenhouse trials to bear fruit, she designed and tested several 3D-printed prototypes before developing a smaller, nonpressurized infusion system.Bringing AI to the fieldThe third part of the project addresses another issue: how do you know if a treatment is really working. While laboratory methods such as qPCR and ELISA can provide detailed information about plant health, they are not always practical for a farmer managing a large grove. Aglave created a web-based computer vision application that uses YOLOv11 and analyzes photos of citrus leaves to measure the visible symptoms of disease. That might provide farmers with an easier way to track trees in the course of normal photography, bridging laboratory research and everyday agricultural decision making.From a high school lab to the groves of FloridaThe research was started by Aglave as a freshman and took over 300 hours to complete, often working two hours in the laboratory every other day after school. Her course work in biology, chemistry, mathematics, statistics and biotechnology provided the foundation, and much of the specialized laboratory work, coding and computer-aided design required independent learning. Her research has earned top awards at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and has been published in the American Phytopathological Society’s journal, Plant Disease. Outside the lab, Aglave seeks to raise climate literacy and awareness of research among young people. She hopes to pursue a career in the biological sciences and continue developing solutions that have practical benefits to communities.Future plansHer vision is long term and extends beyond citrus. The combination of biological treatment, thermal therapy and accessible diagnostics could potentially be adapted to other bacterial and fungal diseases and vascular plant diseases. But for Florida’s citrus growers, the immediate goal is easier: healthier trees. Aglave’s research is intended to make disease management less costly and more environmentally friendly and provide growers with better tools to understand what’s happening in their fields. For a farming family, that could mean a lot more than a successful experiment. It could be protecting a way of life and helping to preserve an industry that has shaped Florida for generations.
