Treatment Archives - Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Accelerating Breakthroughs, Advancing Hope: How Bay Area Lyme Powers Lyme Disease Research

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Bay Area Lyme Leading the Way Series

“Every one of our success stories amplifies the ripple effect of philanthropy done right: targeted, strategic, and driven by measurable impact.”

– Katariina Tuovinen

For more than a decade, Bay Area Lyme Foundation has been rewriting the story of Lyme and tick-borne disease research. With a mission to make Lyme disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure, the Foundation has built a national reputation as a nimble, entrepreneurial engine for scientific innovation. Since its founding in 2012, Bay Area Lyme has invested more than $31 million to support over 60 groundbreaking studies and partnerships across 56 institutions nationwide, each one helping to transform the landscape of Lyme disease diagnostics, treatments, and prevention.

At the heart of this success lies a small but mighty force: The Bay Area Lyme Science Committee, led by Research Grant Director Katariina Tuovinen, MS, MBA, MA, together with pediatric infectious disease physician Charlotte Mao, MD, MPH, and Liz Horn, PhD, MBI, Principal Investigator of Lyme Disease Biobank. Together, this team guides a grantmaking strategy that prizes bold ideas, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and measurable impact—an approach that has introduced new talent, fresh perspectives, and innovative technologies to a field that desperately needs them.

New Bay Area Lyme Foundation Study Reports That Only One-Third of Early Lyme Patients with On-Going Symptoms Followed up with their Healthcare Providers

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Bay Area Lyme Foundation Study Reports That Only One-Third of Early Lyme Patients with On-Going Symptoms Followed up with their Healthcare Providers

The new research, published in Frontiers in Medicine, points to need for greater follow-up from medical professionals to address potential treatment failures.

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., July 10, 2025—Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the US, announced the publication of new research in Frontiers in Medicine based on data from Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s Lyme Disease Biobank. This large-scale study conducted over 10 years at sites on the East Coast and the Upper Midwest demonstrates the need for improved diagnostics and increased follow-up by medical professionals for Lyme disease patients.

Only one-fifth of study participants (23%), enrolled with signs and symptoms of early Lyme, were positive by the CDC’s standard two-tiered test for Lyme disease, which supports previous research that found that it misses up to 70% of cases of early-stage Lyme disease. Further, approximately 1 in 5 patients reported ongoing symptoms at 3 months, including joint pain, fatigue, and muscle pain yet only one-third (35%) of these participants followed up with their healthcare providers about these ongoing symptoms. Due to difficulties in diagnosing Lyme disease and resulting treatment delays, as many as two million people may suffer from persistent Lyme disease, which can be debilitating.

Accurate, timely detection of Lyme disease is critical to preventing long-term complications. Moreover, follow-up from medical professionals with all patients after they complete antibiotic treatment could improve outcomes and reduce the burden of Lyme disease,” said lead author Liz Horn, PhD, MBI, Principal Investigator of Lyme Disease Biobank, a Bay Area Lyme Foundation program which helps to accelerate research by collecting, storing and providing much-needed human biological samples for use in research. “Our data also confirm the limitations of serology testing in early Lyme disease and after antibiotic treatment.”

The Lyme-Mold Connection: An Incredible Guide to Healing

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Bay Area Lyme Quick Bites Series

“I think I prevented a lot of chronic Lyme cases by doing adequate early treatment. But I had a subset of patients who just were not getting better. These cases had either a current or a past exposure to mold.”

– Jill Crista, ND

In this latest episode of Ticktective^™, our host, Dana Parish, talks with Dr. Jill Crista, a leading expert on the diagnosis and treatment of toxic mold exposure and illness. Dr. Crista started her practice in southern Wisconsin, which is often in the top five states for Lyme disease cases, even though Lyme is often thought of as a Northeast issue.

Click here to watch or listen now.

Parish and Crista discuss the complex nature of mold toxicity, including its impact on the immune system, the brain, and various organ systems. Crista emphasizes the importance of identifying the underlying causes of mold exposure, such as water damage and poor indoor air quality, rather than just addressing the symptoms.

Science Translational Medicine Study Funded by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation Identifies FDA-approved Piperacillin as More Effective, Targeted Treatment for Lyme Disease

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Science Translational Medicine Study Funded by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation Identifies FDA-approved Piperacillin as More Effective, Targeted Treatment for Lyme Disease

An additional Science Translational Medicine study also funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation uncovers how lingering bacterial cell wall molecules may contribute to chronic Lyme symptoms

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. April 23, 2025 – Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the US, announces two pre-clinical studies published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine. The studies demonstrate promising implications for improved Lyme disease treatment and understanding of chronic Lyme through peptidoglycan, a molecule found in the cell wall of the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), which causes Lyme disease. The first study finds piperacillin, an FDA-approved treatment for pneumonia that inhibits peptidoglycan production, may be a more effective treatment for Lyme disease than the current “gold standard” treatment, doxycycline, which is not effective for up to 20% of patients. The second study uncovers how lingering peptidoglycan builds up in the joint fluid and liver, contributing to chronic Lyme symptoms, which affect over 20% of patients treated for Lyme disease.

“Piperacillin may be a game-changer for improving Lyme disease treatment, which is currently a challenge for researchers and physicians. Furthermore, our new mechanistic understanding of how piperacillin affects peptidoglycan synthesis is unexpectedly informing our development of a biomarker-based approach to diagnose acute Lyme disease,” said Brandon Jutras, PhD, associate professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and a Bay Area Lyme Foundation 2021 Emerging Leader Award winner. “Our second study explores the role of peptidoglycan in chronic Lyme symptoms; peptidoglycan influences an inflammatory and chronic illness response for weeks or even months after infection, adding to the growing evidence that remnants of bacteria and viruses can stick around and keep affecting the body, similar to the occurrence of Long COVID in some patients.”

Dr. Scott Commins, Alpha-Gal Syndrome, and a Guide to Tick-Induced Meat Allergies

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Ticktective Podcast Transcript

Ticktective™ host Dana Parish interviews Scott P. Commins, MD, PhD, about the growing prevalence of alpha-gal syndrome, a food allergy condition caused by a tick bite, where people develop an allergic reaction to a sugar found in red meat and other mammalian products. Symptoms can include hives, gastrointestinal distress, and potentially life-threatening anaphylaxis, often occurring 3–6 hours after consuming specific foods. This syndrome is increasing, especially in the Southeastern United States, due to the spread of the Lone Star tick. Dr. Commins discusses the current state of research in the US and how investigators are working to develop immunotherapy approaches to help desensitize patients and potentially resolve the allergy over time.

Dana Parish: Welcome to the Ticktective Podcast, a program of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, where our mission is to make Lyme disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure. I’m your host, Dana Parish, and I’m the co-author of the book Chronic, and I sit on the advisory board of Bay Area Lyme Foundation. This program offers insightful interviews with scientists, clinicians, patients, and other interesting people. We’re a nonprofit based in Silicon Valley, and thanks to a generous grant that covers a hundred percent of our overhead. All of your donations go directly to our research and prevention programs. For more information about Lyme disease, please visit us at bayarealyme.org.

Today, I welcome Dr. Scott Commins. He is a highly esteemed expert in the field of allergy and immunology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and a pioneer when it comes to alpha-gal syndrome. You’ve heard about alpha-gal when a tick bite can cause a meat allergy, but there is so much more to know. So enjoy this interview. I hope you learn a lot and please share it with your doctors because there is such a lack of education about this very important syndrome, and doctors becoming aware of it will only help us patients.

Dr. Neil Nathan: When You’re Not Getting Better. Best-selling Author and Chronic Illness Expert has Answers.

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Bay Area Lyme Quick Bites series

“If you have Lyme disease and your treatment is stalled out or not moving or you’re not progressing the way you should, please check for mold. It’s almost certain that’s what you need to be working on next.”

– Neil Nathan, MD

Our Ticktective host, Dana Parish, interviews Dr. Neil Nathan, renowned physician and best-selling author. Dr. Nathan specializes in treating chronic illnesses, particularly those related to environmental toxins, vector-borne infections, and complex systemic disorders. With decades of experience in clinical practice, he focuses on understanding the impact of toxins on health and is dedicated to helping patients recover from illnesses that conventional medicine often struggles to address. His bestselling book, Toxic: Heal Your Body from Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and Other Chronic Environmental Illnesses, provides a comprehensive guide to recognizing, diagnosing, and treating various chronic conditions linked to environmental factors.

Click here to watch or listen now.

The Numbers Don’t Lie: Why the NIH Consistently Underfunds Research into Lyme Disease

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

An In-depth Interview with Kris Newby, Author of “Bitten”

“We need to let the NIH know that we’re watching them, and we want results.”

– Kris Newby

Kris Newby, author of ‘Bitten,’ is investigating government spending on Lyme disease research, which is strongly influenced by the flawed original disease definition of Lyme disease. She summarizes the impact of the 2018 Tick-Borne Disease Working Group’s report, explains where research funding has and is currently being directed, and calls for money to be spent on better diagnostics and treatments for Lyme disease sufferers instead. Kris explores potential actions that Lyme patients can take to help direct the course of funding, such as communicating with Congress, supporting advocacy groups, and donating to research organizations.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

Kris Newby is watching our government, and watching quite closely. She has a lot to say about how government money is spent on a disease that, according to CDC estimates, infects almost 500,000 people annually in the US, causing untold pain, suffering, loss of livelihood, and, in extreme cases, severe mental illness, including suicidal and homicidal events.

Of course, we are talking about Lyme disease—the pariah of infection-associated chronic conditions.

Toxic Load: Healing from Tick-borne Disease and Autoimmune Illness

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

BAL “Quick Bites” Series

“If you have an autoimmune disease, our allopathic system does not have great answers that are solution-based or root cause-based to chronic complex illness.”

– Jill Carnahan, MD

In this edition of our Ticktective video and podcast series, Dana Parish sits down with Jill Carnahan, MD, a functional medicine doctor specializing in Lyme disease, tick-borne illnesses, mold toxicity, and other complex chronic health issues. Carnahan discusses her background growing up on a farm and how it influenced her approach to medicine. She shares her experience being diagnosed with breast cancer and the potential environmental factors, such as atrazine, that may have contributed to it. Carnahan talks about her cancer treatment and her belief in finding and addressing root causes in medicine. She then discusses her expertise in Lyme and tick-borne diseases, explaining how she evaluates and treats these conditions. She emphasizes the need for a clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease due to the limitations of mainstream tests. Carnahan also sheds light on the connection between mold exposure and chronic illness, including dementia and psychiatric disorders. She provides insights into testing, detoxification, and treatment strategies for mold-related illnesses. The interview concludes with information about connecting with Dr. Carnahan’s clinic, her book, and her documentary.

Understanding Infection-associated Chronic Illness: How the Immune System Responds to Persistent Infection

Distinguished Speaker Series with Michal Tal, PhD

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Distinguished Speaker Series Transcript

“I want to leave you with hope. I think we’re going to be unstoppable because I think that these are solvable problems. These are answerable questions. I think that there are already a lot of existing tools in immunology that just need to be brought into the fight, and we can change this.”

– Michal Caspi Tal, PhD

Michal Caspi Tal: In the chronic illness world, I think that there is something about hope with a capital ‘H’ that is precious. I think it always has to be. I want to talk a little bit about what my lab is doing, where I think we could go in the future and the hope that I have for how we move forward, how we solve this, and how we change this for those who come after us. So, I’ll tell you a little bit about some of the recent things that have come out of the lab, what the lab is working on now, and where we want to go.

New Study Shows How Borrelia burgdorferi Evades the Immune System

Recently, we published a study in collaboration with Hanna Ollila’s lab where we compared people who’ve had Lyme and have had a diagnosis of Lyme versus people who’ve never had a diagnosis of Lyme. We found a genetic difference in a sweat protein that nobody—including me—had ever thought about before. We tested it against the bacteria in our lab, and we saw that it had a huge effect; we tested it in mice, and it had a huge effect. So that’s really exciting. We had another paper that came online yesterday that is one of these last papers from my postdoctoral work over at Stanford, where we actually managed to figure out some of how Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme, manages to evade immune clearance.

Any respectable pathogen that can establish a persistent infection needs to figure out your immune system to the point that it can evade it. The fact that it has persisted means that it was able to evade your immune clearance. And so, I got to that from a very interesting direction working on immune regulation, trying to understand these brakes on the immune response and how they impact the response to infection. The immune system has the power to kill you and obviously, nobody has any incentive for that to happen. So, there are a lot of mechanisms in place to put brakes on the immune system and reign it in. One of the huge developments in cancer over the last two decades has been reevaluating the question: can we take those brakes off? So in my postdoc, I was studying a particular checkpoint where this was turning into an exciting immuno-oncology target, and I said, ‘I want to look at how this checkpoint is used in infection.’ I realized that this checkpoint was being used to help you survive an acute infection, but created a vulnerability for pathogens to evade immune clearance and establish chronic infection much like it allows cancer cells to evade immune clearance. In an amazing collaboration with Irv Weissman, Balyn Zaro, and Jenifer Coburn we realized that the bacteria that cause Lyme disease manipulate this brake and that’s how I became fascinated with Lyme. But I also became concerned about turning off this brake in cancer patients because I was concerned about what would happen if you used this on cancer patients during an active infection. Indeed, the clinical trials on this drug were ended due to increased death from infection, and I wish it hadn’t been tested during a worldwide pandemic.

Matt Kaeberlein, Rapamycin, and the Dog Aging Project: What Animals Can Teach Us About Aging Better

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

BAL “Quick Bites” Series

In scientific exploration, few fields captivate the imagination quite like the study of aging. It’s a universal process affecting all living beings, yet its mechanisms remain elusive and its implications profound. Recently, a spotlight has been cast on aging research through initiatives like the Dog Aging Project, spearheaded by Dr. Matt Kaeberlein. This ambitious endeavor aims not only to understand the biological underpinnings of aging in dogs but also to glean insights that could potentially enhance human longevity. At the forefront of this research is rapamycin, a drug with promising anti-aging properties. In our latest Ticktective interview, Dana Parish delves into the intricacies of this groundbreaking project with Dr. Kaeberlein and learns what animals, particularly dogs, can teach us about aging better.

“Investing in research on aging and companion animal health can pave the way for longer, healthier lives for both humans and animals.”

– Matt Kaeberlein