Research and Development

Exciting progress is being made on the study of Neuroborreliosis, Lyme and tick related diseases.  This research will ultimately lead to a reliable vaccine for Lyme disease as well as better diagnostic tools and treatment protocols.

Leading scientists outside of the current "Lyme Wars" have gathered under two exceptional programs committed to unraveling the mysteries of the chronic nature of the diseases, and ultimately finding a cure and reliable vaccine.

Following is a partial list of the top scientists and medical researchers working on better diagnostic and treatment methods for Lyme neuroborreliosis:

Columbia Research Team (Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center):

• Dr. Brian Fallon (psychiatry) 
• Dr. Ronald Van Heertum (nuclear medicine) 
• Dr. Robert De La Paz (neuroradiology) 
• Dr. Harold Sakiem (psychiatry) 
• Dr. Jay Dobkin (infectious disease) 
• Dr. Carolyn Britton (neurology) 
• Dr. Ted Dwyer (rheumotology) 
• Dr. Kathy Miller Corbera (research "Persistent Lyme Encephalopothy") 
• Dr. John Keilp (neuroscience) 
• Dr. Rafal Tokarz (microbiologist) 
• Dr. Andrew Dwork (neuropathologist) 

Stony Brook University Research Team  includes top scientists from across the country and recently made a noteworthy discovery regarding the virulent strain:

• Dr. Benjamin Luft (Professor and Researcher at SUNY Medical Center) 
• Dr. William D. McCaig SUNY 
• Dr. John F. Bruno SUNY 
• Dr. Yun Xu, SUNY 
• Dr. Steve Schutzer (Immunologist - Univ.of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) 
• Dr. Claire Frazer (Genomics - Director of the Institute for Genomic Research in Maryland) 
• Dr. Sherwood Casjens (Genomics - University of Utah) 
• Dr. Wei-Gang Qui (Hunter College of the City University of New York) 
• Dr. Ian Livey (Baxter Vaccine AG, Orth/Donau, Austria) 
• Dr. Martin M. Schriefer (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado) 
• Dr. Dick Smith (Proteomics - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) 

St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown New York (Long Island) hired Dr. Alan MacDonald to pick up where he left off on his research linking Lyme disease to Alzheimer's.  There are four excellent medical papers the doctor published on his work on Lyme disease and Alzheimer's.

Dr. Alan MacDonald's website can be found here.

The Center for Disease Control awarded Tulane University a 27.5 million dollar grant to build a special research lab which was completed in December, 2008 to further study Lyme disease amongst other spreading diseases.  

Tulane National Primate Research Center has a special research team focused on Lyme disease.

Faculty includes over 30 doctoral-level scientists involved in research, education and research support. The major research areas are infectious diseases and gene therapy. In the last year the TNPRC supported research by over 280 scientists from 32 states and 13 countries. To name a few of the top scientists:

Mario T. Philipp, PhD, - Chair/Professor of Microbiology & Immunology (Lyme disease, Streptococcus pneumoniae) 

Dennis, Vida PhD, - Adjunct Assistant Professor (Lyme disease, Chlamydia)

Embers, Monica E. PhD, - Instructor ( Lyme disease, Primate Moraxella, Brucellosis)

Kaushal, Deepak PhD, - Research Assistant Professor (Tuberculosis, Bioinformatics)

Ramamoorthy, Ramesh PhD, Research Assistant Professor (Lyme Disease)

NOTE: Research Assistants are accurate as of January 1, 2009 but may change due to career advancement.