Winner Trever Smith, of Tufts University, will collect novel therapeutic data to develop a first-of-its-kind drug interaction compendium for Lyme Disease
PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the US, announces the recipient of the 2024 Emerging Leader Award (ELA), which is designed to support new and innovative research and aims to attract aspiring new scientific talent to the field of Lyme. This year’s winner, Trever Smith, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine, will receive $150,000 for his work to identify precise treatment combinations that more effectively target persistent Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) infection in persistent Lyme patients. For this research, Dr. Smith intends to develop a first-of-its-kind drug interaction compendium to help prioritize the most effective combinations for testing in pre-clinical models of Lyme disease. To do so, Dr. Smith will leverage techniques he and other researchers use to identify effective drug combinations against other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, and translate them for Bb. Due to the difficulty in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, it is estimated that over two million patients currently suffer from the debilitating later-stage symptoms of persistent Lyme in the US, and there are currently no FDA-approved treatments for the persistent symptoms of Lyme disease.
“While combination therapies to treat chronic Lyme have shown promise in early research and are widely used with success in other disease areas, the vast majority of chronic Lyme patients are not able to benefit from combination therapies,” said Wendy Adams, research grant director, Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “Dr. Smith’s research aims to change this, as it builds on his previous research success in tuberculosis to bring the hope of combination therapies for Lyme to the forefront and seeks to give clinicians and researchers a better understanding of the advantages of combining current FDA-approved treatments in Lyme disease.”
Smith’s Emerging Leader Award research project will use computational tools and direct measurement of drug interaction outcomes, including high-throughput drug interaction screening techniques, to develop a comprehensive drug interaction dataset. This data will determine which drug combinations are most efficacious in eradicating Bb in vitro. The efficacy of the identified drug combinations will then be tested in a chronically infected in vivo model of Lyme disease. Multi-omics analyses and imaging studies will also be performed to identify borrelial cell death mechanisms of these combinations. The project will expand our understanding of how drug combinations target and kill Bb.
“At Bay Area Lyme Foundation, we continually seek to support researchers who can apply proven scientific approaches from other disease areas and tap already-approved therapeutics to quickly advance care for patients, and Dr. Smith’s research intentions address both of these goals,” said Linda Giampa, executive director, Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “We are very hopeful that Dr. Smith can build on his previous research success to make strides toward improved treatment for the millions of patients managing chronic Lyme today.”
Dr. Smith’s research follows BAL’s longstanding support for researchers working on combination therapy, including Monica Embers, PhD, and Ying Zhang, MD, PhD. This work is part of the ongoing efforts at Tufts University by Dr. Smith and previous Emerging Leader Award recipient Peter Gwynne, PhD, to identify new drugs that target Bb. Dr. Smith and Dr. Gwynne are members of the Tufts University Lyme Disease Initiative, which leverages specialized expertise in tick-borne illnesses to advance and innovate treatments for Lyme and prevent disease transmission.
Previous Emerging Leader Award recipients have come from institutions, including Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Louisiana State University, North Carolina State University, Stanford University School of Medicine, Texas A&M, Tulane University, University of California San Francisco, Rockefeller University, Stanford University, Tufts University, and Northwestern University. Most of these projects were in the early stages of research, and the Emerging Leader Award enabled scientists to generate data required for government funding. Many findings have been accepted for presentation at well-respected scientific forums or are detailed in peer-reviewed papers.
Since 2014, these awards have been given annually to promising scientists who have identified a defined approach to improve diagnostics or therapeutics for Lyme disease. Scientists or clinicians interested in applying for the 2025 Emerging Leader Award or learning about the other funding opportunities that the Bay Area Lyme Foundation offers throughout the year should visit https://www.bayarealyme.org/our-research/grant-process/.
About Lyme Disease
The most common vector-borne infectious disease in the US, Lyme disease is a potentially disabling infection caused by bacteria transmitted through the bite of an infected tick to people and pets, and can be potentially passed from a pregnant mother to her unborn baby. If caught early, most cases of Lyme disease can be effectively treated, but it is commonly misdiagnosed due to lack of awareness and inaccurate diagnostic tests. Based on the trajectory of Lyme disease cases documented by CDC between 2010 and 2018, Bay Area Lyme estimates that there are now more than 620,000 new cases of Lyme disease each year, and, as a result of the difficulty in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, up to two million Americans may be suffering from the impact of its debilitating long-term symptoms and complications.
About Bay Area Lyme Foundation
Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a national organization committed to making Lyme disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure, is the leading public not-for-profit sponsor of innovative Lyme disease research in the US. A 501c3 organization based in Silicon Valley, Bay Area Lyme Foundation collaborates with world-class scientists and institutions to accelerate medical breakthroughs for Lyme disease. It is also dedicated to providing reliable, fact-based information so that prevention and the importance of early treatment are common knowledge. A pivotal donation from The LaureL STEM FUND covers overhead costs and allows for 100% of all donor contributions to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation to go directly to research and prevention programs. For more information about Lyme disease or to get involved, visit www.bayarealyme.org or call us at 650-530-2439.
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Tara DiMilia
Phone: 908-369-7168
Tara.DiMilia@tmstrat.com
