The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded five projects for research to better understand Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), which is a collection of symptoms, such as pain, fatigue, and difficulty thinking or “brain fog,” which linger following standard treatment for Lyme disease.
The new NIAID awards for PTLDS, which will total approximately $3.2 million in first-year funding, will support work on possible causes of persistent PTLDS symptoms for five years. The award recipients are:
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Project title: The natural release of unusual peptidoglycan fragments drives persistent Lyme disease symptoms in susceptible hosts
Principal investigator: Brandon Jutras, Ph.D.
Grant: 1 R01 AI178711-01
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Project title: Unlocking serology’s secrets: harnessing novel immune biomarkers to predict Lyme disease progression and recovery
Principal investigator: Michal Tal, Ph.D.
Grant: 1 R01 AI178713-01
Tufts University, Boston
Project title: Auto-antibodies as predictive markers for Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome
Principal investigator: Linden Hu, M.D.
Grant: 1 R01 AI178725-01
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Project title: Determinants of post-treatment phenotypes in Lyme disease
Principal investigator: John Aucott, M.D.
Grant: 1 R01 AI178726-01
Arizona State University, Tempe
Project title: Discovery of early immunologic biomarkers for risk of PTLDS through machine learning-assisted broad temporal profiling of humoral immune response
Principal investigator: Neal Woodbury, Ph.D.
Grant: 1 R01 AI178727-01
