Stanford Archives - Bay Area Lyme Foundation

New Discovery Identifies “Don’t Eat Me” Protein that Allows Lyme Bacteria to Evade Body’s Immune Response

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Discovery Identifies “Don’t Eat Me” Protein that Allows Lyme Bacteria to Evade Body’s Immune Response

Stanford University/MIT/UCSF study funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation offers new direction for tick-borne disease research, paving the way for potential new discoveries

Palo Alto, CA, May 7, 2024—Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the U.S., today announced a study finding a new mechanism of immune evasion used by Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. This study is the first to identify the specific Borrelia protein that acts as a “don’t eat me” signal to the body’s immune system in people with Lyme disease, offering insight into how the bacteria may persist in Lyme patients and introduces an entirely new research direction toward potential future treatments. The research was conducted at Stanford University and University of California San Francisco and funded in part by Bay Area Lyme Foundation. This groundbreaking data posted on bioRxiv on April 30, 2024, is expected to be published in a peer-review journal in the future.

“One of the big mysteries of Lyme disease has been how Borrelia is able to evade and survive the immune system – and this study helps answer that question. We’ve unlocked a critical door to understanding how this bacteria, and possibly other pathogens, manage to trick the immune system to evade clearance,” said lead author Michal Tal, PhD, principal scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bay Area Lyme Foundation 2018 Emerging Leader Award winner who has received additional funding from the organization for this project.

In this study, researchers found that P66, a known Borrelia surface protein and one of the IgG Western Blot testing “bands” used for diagnosis, can inhibit an important portion of the immune response.

The Wearable Project: How Can Wearables Be Used in Diagnosing and Studying Lyme Disease?

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Michael Snyder, PhD

Guest host, Wendy Adams, Bay Area Lyme grant director, interviews Dr. Michael Snyder, Stanford W. Ascherman Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics Director, Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine Stanford University. Dr. Snyder is a major participant in the ENCODE project, the public research project that aims to identify functional elements of the human genome. He authored the book: Genomics and Personalized Medicine: What Everyone Needs to Know. He is also a cofounder and a board member of several biotechnology companies. Ticktective Video and Podcast Editor: Kiva Schweig.

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First West Coast CME Program on Tick-borne Disease Provides New Data, Insights from Researchers

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Tara DiMilia, 908-947-0500, tara.dimilia@TMstrat.com

First West Coast CME Program on Tick-borne Disease Provides New Data, Insights from Researchers

Stanford University School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital host clinical and research forum funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Silicon Valley, CA, September 3, 2019—Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the U.S., today highlights the first tick-borne disease CME program on the West Coast, Emerging Research, Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Illness. The conference was hosted by two major academic institutions representing the East and West Coasts of the U.S., Stanford University School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital, and included presentations related to the magnitude of tick-borne disease in California, emerging diagnostic technologies, potential future treatment options, and epidemiological statistics enabled by Lyme disease biobanks.

“There is a lack of understanding about the variety and severity of tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease on the west coast” said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, professor of laboratory medicine and infectious diseases at UCSF, associate director of the UCSF Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, and Bay Area Lyme Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member. “This was a great opportunity to share the latest findings and ongoing research on the topic, so that physicians and other medical professionals can more quickly and accurately diagnose and treat their patients.”