At Bay Area Lyme Foundation, we are excited about the potential for significant breakthroughs in medical research being led by the following scientists.

Andriy Batchinsky MD

Andriy Batchinsky, MD

Senior Scientist, Geneva Foundation

Dr. Batchinsky is a 2023 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He is working to develop an Extracorporeal blood disinfection treatment for Lyme. Dr. Batchinsky is a Senior Scientist at the Geneva Foundation.

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John N. Aucott, MD

Dr. Aucott is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins University Medical School and the Director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center

Dr. Aucott is a renowned expert in clinical research on the diagnosis and epidemiology of Lyme disease. He is the founder and president of Lyme Disease Research Foundation, a public nonprofit organization founded to promote research and education in Lyme disease.

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Chase Beisel

Chase L. Beisel, PhD

Scientist, Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research

Dr Chase Beisel was awarded the 2016 Emerging Leader Award to explore the potential ability of CRISPR-Cas genome targeting to kill the bacteria that causes Lyme.

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Lisa K. Blum, PhD

Lisa K. Blum, PhD

Postdoc Fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine (Immunology & Rheumatology)

Dr. Blum is a 2014 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner and fellow at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. William Robinson, where she is currently working on DNA sequencing of human antibody responses to Borrelia burgdorferi infection.

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Jason Bobe, MSIS

Jason Bobe, MSIS

Associate Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Jason Bobe’s research is focused on the creation of collaborative and participatory models of biomedical research.

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Jerome F. Bouquet, PhD

Jerome F. Bouquet, PhD

Postdoc Fellow, University of California, San Francisco (Microbiology)

Dr. Bouquet is a 2014 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner and fellow at UCSF in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Chiu studying infectious disease, particularly Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses.

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John Branda, MD

Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School; Associate Pathologist, Massachusetts General Hospital; Associate Director, Microbiology Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Branda's research focuses on improving patient care through the development of new diagnostic strategies and the optimization of laboratory tests and antimicrobial agents, including tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme borreliosis, anaplasmosis, and tularemia.

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Ed Breitschwerdt, DVM, DACVIM, PhD

DVM, DACVIM, The Melanie S. Steele Distinguished Professorship in Medicine
Professor, Internal Medicine North Carolina State University

Dr. Edward B. Breitschwerdt is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

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Charles Chiu

Charles Chiu, MD, PhD

Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at University of California, San Francisco, Director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center (VDDC), and Associate Director of the UCSF Clinical Microbiology Laboratory.

Dr. Chiu is an expert in the development and implementation of advanced genomic technologies for pathogen discovery and clinical diagnostics including microarrays and next generation sequencing.

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Kerry L Clark, Ph.D.

Professor, Epidemiology & Environmental Health, University of North Florida

Dr. Clark is a Professor of Epidemiology & Environmental Health at University of North Florida.

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James J. Collins, PhD

Core Faculty, Wyss Institute, Harvard University; Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science; Professor of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. James Collins is a 2017 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He is recognized for his pioneering research in synthetic biology and systems biology.

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Brian R. Crane, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University

Dr. Crane is a Professor at Cornell University, where he is researching Lyme disease antimicrobials based on the inhibition of flagella hook cross-linking.

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Matt Croughan, PhD

Biotechnology Industry Consultant

Dr. Croughan is an expert in process development and manufacturing for biopharmaceutical, cell therapy, and biofuels.

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Monica E. Embers, PhD

Associate Professor, Division of Immunology, Tulane National Primate Research Center

Dr. Embers' work focuses on antibiotic efficacy against Lyme disease; and immunodiagnosis for the Lyme-causing B. burgdorferi infection.

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Mark Eshoo

Mark Eshoo, PhD

Director, New Technology Development, Ibis Biosciences, Inc.

Dr. Eshoo serves as the Director of New Technology Development at Ibis Biosciences where he leads several projects relating to development and assessment of new diagnostic technologies.

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Bay Area Lyme funded researcher Janet Foley, PhD

Janet Foley, PhD

Professor, Medicine & Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine University of California, Davis

Janet Foley, PhD, is a vector-borne disease ecologist at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California

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Flavio Frohlich, PhD

Associate Professor, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Flavio Frohlich, PhD is an Associate Professor at University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine.

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Nichola C. Garbett, PhD

Nichola C. Garbett, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of Louisville School of Medicine; Assistant Director of the Biophysical Core Facility, James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville

Dr. Garbett applies biophysical approaches to the study of biomolecules and their interactions, with particular emphasis on the development of new technologies for medical diagnostics and drug development.

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Eva Garland

Eva Garland, PhD

Vice President of Research & Development, Agile Sciences

Dr. Garland has been leading the research efforts at Agile Sciences focused on a new treatment attacking the biofilms that surround the borrelia burgdorferi bacteria protecting it from human immunological response.

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Andrea Granados, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

Dr. Granados is a 2019 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. She is studying differential gene response in early Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. Dr. Granados is Postdoctoral Fellow at UCSF School of Medicine.

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Britton Grasperge

Britton J. Grasperge, PhD

Assistant Professor - Clinical Pathology, Louisiana State University

Dr. Britton Grasperge is a 2016 Emerging Leader Award recipient and a veterinary clinical pathologist with a research interest in tick-borne diseases.

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Peter Gwynne, PhD

Peter Gwynne, PhD

Post Doctoral Researcher, Tufts University

Dr. Gwynne is a 2022 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He is working to develop a diagnostic test for Lyme disease.  He is a Post Doctoral Researcher at Tufts University.

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Sarah A. Hamer, MS, PhD, DVM, DACVPM

Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Veterinary Integrative Biosciences & Veterinary Pathobiology , Texas A&M University

Dr. Hamer is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, specializing in wildlife and zoonotic disease ecology and epidemiology.

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Timothy Haystead, PhD

Timothy Haystead, PhD

Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine

Dr. Haystead is a Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. His current research is focused on the use of chemical biology approaches to define novel drug targets.

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Emir Hodzic, DVM, PhD

Emir Hodzic, DVM, PhD

Director, Real-Time PCR Research & Diagnostics Core Facility, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis

Dr. Emir Hodzic received Veterinary, Masters and Ph.D. degrees from University of Sarajevo, School of Veterinary Medicine, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He did postdoctoral training at the Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine where he focused on animal models for Lyme disease and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. Currently, Dr. Hodzic is a Director at the Real-Time PCR Research & Diagnostics Core Facility at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis where he is researching post-antibiotic persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi.

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Lee Hood

Lee Hood, MD, PhD

President and Co-Founder of the Institute for Systems Biology

Dr. Hood's outstanding contributions have had a resounding effect on the advancement of science since the 1960s. He has made many seminal discoveries in the fields of immunology, neurobiology and biotechnology and, most recently, systems biology and its applications to cancer and neurodegenerative disease.

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Liz Horn PhD, MBI

Liz Horn, PhD, MBI

Principal Investigator, Lyme Disease Biobank and Principal, LHC Biosolutions

Dr. Horn facilitates the development of biorepositories and other bio-based technologies for medical research and is the Principal Investigator for the Lyme Disease Biobank.

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Richard Horowitz, MD

Medical Director, Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center

Dr. Richard Horowitz is a board certified internist in private practice in Hyde Park, N.Y. He is medical director of the Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center, an integrative medical center which combines both classical and complementary approaches in the treatment of Lyme Disease and other tick-borne disorders. He has been treating Lyme patients for the last 29 years, and he is now undertaking a data mining project with support of Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

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Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA

Principal Investigator, MyLymeData and Chief Executive Officer, LymeDisease.org

Lorraine Johnson is the Chief Executive Officer of LymeDisease.org and the principal investigator of its patient registry and research platform, MyLymeData.

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Brandon Jutras, PhD, Bay Area Lyme Emerging Leader Award recipient

Brandon Jutras, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech.

Dr. Jutras is a 2021 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He has focused his entire research career on studying the biology and pathogenesis of Borrelia burgdorferi. Dr. Jutras is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech.

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Jacob Lemieux, MD, DPhil

Post-Doctoral Researcher, Harvard University

Jacob Lemieux, MD, D. Phil is the winner of the 2020 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award. He is developing a sensitive, direct detection diagnostic for early Lyme disease . He is a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard and an infectious disease fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital.

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Richard T Marconi, PhD

Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center

Dr. Marconi is a Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, where his research interests focus on Lyme disease vaccines and therapeutics.

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Jennifer Miller, PhD

Contractor, Agile Sciences

Dr. Miller has studied the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi for her entire 15-year career. Her work focuses on the pathogenesis of B. burgdorferi and its interactions with the host immune system. She is currently employed by Agile Sciences.

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Yuko Nakajima, PHD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Brandeis University

Dr. Nakajima is a 2017 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner and postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University in the lab of James E. Haber, where she is studying gene conversion to block immune evasion by Borrelia burgdoferi and other pathogens.

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Nate Nieto, PhD

Assist. Professor, Northern Arizona University

Dr. Nieto's research focused on infectious diseases, vector biology, and the ecological evolution and transmission of disease from wildlife to humans and domestic animals.

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Lise Nigrovic

Lise E. Nigrovic, MD, MPH

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Director of Education, Clinical Research Center and Senior Associate Physician in Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital

Dr. Lise E. Nigrovic is the Director of Education, Clinical Research Center and Senior Associate Physician in Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her current work is focused on a pediatric multi‐center Lyme disease research network with biosample collection.

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Geetha Parthasarathy, PhD

Research Scientist, Tulane University

Dr. Parthasarathy is a 2019 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. She is studying pathogenesis behind glial and neuronal cell death as caused by B. burgdorferi. Dr. Parthasarathy is a Research Scientist at Tulane University.

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Nichole Pedowitz, PhD

Nichole Pedowitz, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University

Dr. Pedowitz is a 2022 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. She is working to develop a diagnostic test for Lyme disease. Dr. Pedowitz is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

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Steven Phillips, MD

Principal Investigator for Kyronyx Biosciences

Dr. Phillips is a 2018 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He is a world-renowned physician, specializing in the treatment of Lyme disease, bartonellosis, babesiosis, and other vector-borne diseases.

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Nira Pollock, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Medical Director of the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital

Dr. Pollock's research has a special interest on the development and evaluation of novel diagnostic tests for infectious diseases and related applications. Her Lyme-related work has included the discovery of novel biomarkers of early Lyme borreliosis.

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Nathan Price

Nathan Price, PhD

Assoc. Director of the Institute for Systems Biology; Affiliate Faculty in Bioengineering, Computer Science & Engineering, and Molecular & Cellular Biology, Univ. of Washington

Dr. Price has won numerous awards including an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, a NIH Howard Temin Pathway to Independence Award, a NSF CAREER award, and a young investigator award from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.

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Jayakumar Rajadas

Jayakumar Rajadas, PhD

Jayakumar Rajadas, PhD Director Biomaterials and Advanced Drug Delivery Laboratory Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford, CA and Professor(Adjunct) Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences UCSF School of Pharmacy University of California, San Francisco, CA

Dr. Rajadas is Director of the Biomaterials and Advanced Drug Delivery Lab (BioADD) and Assistant Director of Cardiovascular Pharmacology at Stanford School of Medicine. His recent research, funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation, identified 20 FDA-approved compounds that were more effective in inhibiting persistent Lyme bacteria than standard antibiotic treatment.

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Nitya Ramadoss, PhD, Bay Area Lyme Emerging Leader Award recipient

Nitya Ramadoss, PhD

Research Scientist, Stanford University

Dr. Ramadoss is a 2021 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. Her research is focused on therapeutic antibody development for Lyme disease. Dr. Ramadoss is a Research Scientist at Stanford University.

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Matthew Redinbo, PhD

Matthew Redinbo, PhD

Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Microbiology, Jointly appointed with the School of Medicine

Dr. Redinbo is a Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Microbiology, Jointly appointed with the School of Medicine, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His current research is focused on drug discovery and the gut microbiome.

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Bill Robinson, MD, PhD

William Robinson, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Immunology & Rheumatology

Dr. Robinson works to develop novel therapies for practical patient care, including the application of antibody sequencing technologies for the treatment of Lyme and other autoimmune diseases.

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Artem Rogovskyy, DVM, PhD, DACVM

Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University

Dr. Rogovskyy is a 2020 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He is working to develop a robust, rapid diagnostic test for Lyme disease. Dr. Rogovskyy is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University.

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Michael P. Rout PhD, Bay Area Lyme Emerging Leader Award recipient

Michael P. Rout, PhD

Professor and Head of Laboratory, Laboratory of Cellular and Structural Biology, The Rockefeller University

Dr. Rout is a 2021 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. He is developing nanobodies to be used in sensitive Lyme Disease diagnostic tests. Dr. Rout is a Professor and Head of Laboratory, Laboratory of Cellular and Structural Biology, The Rockefeller University.

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Pardis Sabeti, MD, DPhil

Professor, Systems Biology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University; Professor, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Harvard Chan School of Public Health; Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Dr. Pardis Sabeti is a Professor at the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT as well as a Howard Hughes Investigator. Dr. Sabeti is using gene sequencing techniques to study co-infections associated with Lyme disease.

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Daniel Salkeld

Daniel Salkeld, PhD

Research Scientist, Colorado State University

Dr. Salkeld is a Research Scientist at Colorado State University and has worked extensively on California tick-borne diseases.

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Eva Sapi, PhD

Professor; Coordinator, M.S. Cellular & Molecular Biology Biology and Environmental Science Department University of New Haven

Dr. Eva Sapi is a Professor and Department Chair at University of New Haven and an internationally recognized expert in Lyme disease research.

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Sunjya K. Schweig, MD

CEO of the California Center for Functional Medicine

Dr. Sunjya K. Schweig is the founder and CEO of the California Center for Functional Medicine (CCFM).

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Dr. Janakiram Seshu, BVSc., PhD

Janakiram Seshu, BVSc, PhD

Professor, Bacterial Pathogenesis, Department of Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Disease (STCEID)

Dr. Seshu is a Professor of Bacterial Pathogenesis in the Department of Biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio.

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Michael Snyder, PhD

Stanford W. Ascherman Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics Director, Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine Stanford University

Dr. Michael Snyder is the Chair of the Department of Genetics and the Director for the Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford.

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Mark Soloski

Mark Soloski, PhD

Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Rheumatology, Molecular Biology & Genetics, and Molecular Biology)

Dr. Soloski is a co-Principal Investigator on the landmark SLICE clinical trial and specializes in the study of certain immune cells (T-cells) and their role in immune recognition, autoimmunity, and host response to infection in acute and chronic disease states.

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Andrea Swei

Andrea Swei, PhD

Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University

Dr. Swei’s research seeks to better understand how different Borrelia burgdorferi genotypes are transmitted and maintained in natural tick populations. The ultimate goal of Dr. Swei’s research is to better understand the factors that lead to the distribution and risk of important tick-borne diseases to human populations.

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Michal Caspi Tal, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University

Dr. Tal is a 2018 Bay Area Lyme Foundation Emerging Leader Award winner. She is studying immunomodulatory mechanisms by which the CD47-SIRPa axis impacts immune clearance of infectious disease. Dr. Tal is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Irving Weissman’s lab at Stanford.

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Bay Area Lyme funded researcher Balyn Zaro, PhD

Balyn Zaro, PhD

Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California San Francisco; Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco; Quantitative Biosciences Institute, University of California San Francisco; Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco

Balyn Zaro, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at University of California San Francisco.

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Ying Zhang, MD

Professor at Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Ying Zhang is a Professor at Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His recent research efforts have included developing more effective treatments for persistent Lyme disease and associated conditions.

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Yong Zhou, Ph.D.

Research Scientist, Institute for Systems Biology

Dr. Zhou is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), where he is working on a number of biomarker discovery projects.

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