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Tara DiMilia, 908-947-0500, tara.dimilia@TMstrat.com
Call for Entries for the Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s 2019 Emerging Leader Award Grant
Grants are designed to inspire new research to address the challenges of Lyme disease
PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., January 15, 2019—Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the US, is announcing a call for entries for their 2019 Emerging Leader Awards (ELA), which are designed to encourage promising scientists who embody the future of Lyme disease research leadership in the US. This year, two $100,000 grants will be awarded in May. Recipients will be researchers from academia or the private sector who are currently at the post-doctoral through the assistant professor level or equivalent, and who have demonstrated professional and scientific leadership in the biomedical sciences. They should have a defined approach that offers scientific rationale for a research project that can advance diagnostics or treatments for Lyme disease. Proof of concept for the $100,000 awards should be feasible in 12–18 months.
These awards, along with other Bay Area Lyme Foundation efforts, aim to fill a gap as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for Lyme disease research is insufficient. While there are nearly 10 times as many people diagnosed each year with Lyme than HIV in the US, Lyme disease receives approximately 1% of the public funding that is allocated for HIV/AIDS.
“While Lyme is one of the fastest-growing infectious diseases in the country, with 427,430 new cases reported in the US alone in 2017, Lyme research is dramatically underfunded,” said Bonnie Crater, chairperson, science committee, Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “Our hope is that these awards will aid in transforming the research landscape by providing the funds necessary to spur incentive for researchers to consider novel approaches to produce reliable diagnostics, and treatments that work.”