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Lyme Disease Working Group

Lyme Disease Working Group

Despite the high occurrence of disease, and disagreements within the medical community about Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases, evidence from research on this illness is in its infancy. A group of scientists and physicians have formed a Lyme Disease Working Group – a Stanford-based, integrated, interdisciplinary initiative to address the global ravages of Lyme disease. With the encouragement of a number of Lyme Disease organizations, we have initiated philanthropically focused efforts to support current research and clinical projects, and catalyze new work.

Our Lyme Disease Working Group is interested in developing more accurate diagnostic tests, improving medical understanding of the course of illness, evaluating the effectiveness of innovative therapies, expanding clinical services, and building greater knowledge and awareness of how to prevent illness. Participating colleagues represent biochemistry, biomedical informatics, biomaterials and advanced drug delivery, cardiovascular medicine, community ecology of wildlife disease, genetics, infectious disease, pediatrics, pain management, microbiology/immunology, neurology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and rheumatology/immunology. Basing this effort at Stanford University will build upon the advantages of working within an institution that strongly supports academic freedom while also encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration. This extraordinary interdisciplinary group also values collaboration with other academic institutions and a number of collaborations are underway.

Such a model is optimal in this context for its potential to produce major breakthroughs in knowledge and improve medical practice—perhaps even more so in the context of Lyme disease where bringing together diverse views is greatly needed to advance the science and inform practice.

Greater funding will enable us to accelerate the work of a coordinated interdisciplinary Lyme disease program that focuses on cutting edge research, and to use the new knowledge that ensues to set the standards for development of evidence-based clinical practices, inform public policy,and improve education accordingly.

Members

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (General Psychiatry and Psychology - Adult) and, by courtesy, of Neurology
Director, Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection and the Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor
Professor of Biochemistry and of Genetics
Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Rheumatology
Walter E. Nichols, MD Professor in the School of Medicine
Steven Harris, M.D.
Adjunct Professor Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Kristen T. Honey, Ph.D., PMP
Co-Founder, Lyme Innovation Senior Research Scholar, School of Medicine
Professor of Neurology (Adult Neurology) and, by courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Redlich Professor, Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine and, by courtesy, of Neurology
Assistant Professor (Research) of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Medicine)
Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Psychology
James W. Raitt, M.D. Professor
Allan and Tina Neill Professor of Lymphatic Research and Medicine
Assistant Professor (Research) of Surgery (Vascular Surgery) and at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus
Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Genetics
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Dhananjay Wagh, PhD
LSRP 3 at the Stanford Functional Genomics Facility
Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor of Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research, Professor of Pathology, and of Developmental Biology
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories & Clinical Translational Neurosciences Incubator) and, by courtesy, of Radiology (Neuroimaging and Neurointervention)
Director, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor and Professor of Radiology

News

  • – Taking A Stand 4 Lyme

    Taking A Stand 4 Lyme: Scientists Tackle the Lyme Disease Epidemic

    In Stand4Lyme Foundation's new video, Stanford Lyme Disease Working Group members speak about the serious consequences of Lyme and tick-borne diseases to help educate stakeholders from a scientific perspective and garner increased government support and funding.

  • – Tick and Mosquito Infections Spreading Rapidly, C.D.C. Finds

    Tick and Mosquito Infections Spreading Rapidly, C.D.C. Finds

    Rates of Lyme, Zika and exotic new diseases are soaring. Federal officials blame hotter weather, jet travel, forested suburbs and slow vaccine development.

  • – KRON4

    VIDEO: May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

    KRON Channel 4 covers Lyme Disease Awareness Month

  • – News Center

    New compounds have potential to combat Lyme disease

    Researchers here have discovered drugs with the potential to eliminate the Lyme disease-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi at the onset of infection. Jayakumar Rajadas, director of the medical school’s Biomaterials and Advanced Drug Delivery Laboratory is senior author. The lead author is postdoctoral scholar Venkata Raveendra Pothineni.

Seed Grant Projects

2017 Research on Lyme Disease: Funded Project Titles

  • Biomechanical alterations of endothelial cells infected with Borrelia burgdorferi
  • Novel microneedle patch development for detection of Borrelia burgdorferi
  • Stem Cell Model of Lyme Carditis
     

2018 Research on Lyme Disease: Funded Project Titles

  • Proteome-wide Profiling of Borrelia Burgdorferi to Identify Temperature Sensitive Modulators of Infection and Persistence
  • Evaluating GABA depletion as the major cause for symptomatic pain, fatigue, and brain fog in post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) using disulfiram treatment
  • Functional MRI and sensory evaluation of central mechanisms of chronic pain associated with Lyme disease
  • Investigating the Sexual Transmission and Developmental Consequences of Borrelia burgdorferi
     

2020 Research on Lyme Disease: Funded Project Titles

  • Impact of habitat fragmentation on Lyme disease entomological hazard and human Lyme disease incidence in California landscapes
  • Teleyoga for Lyme Disease
  • Correlation of Lyme Incidence with Meteorological Alterations Throughout the Eastern United States, 2003 – 2018 (CLIMATE)