NYS microbiologist receives $9.5M for Lyme disease study
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ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A microbiologist at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) has received a $9.5 million contract from the National Institutes of Health to research new Lyme disease treatments and vaccines, the department announced on Monday. The five-year contract will allow NYSDOH to better understand the bacterium that causes the disease.
Nicholas Mantis, the chief of the Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, will use the contract funding to study the human response to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that is spread through a tick bite and causes Lyme disease. The goal is to identify which antibodies are better at fighting the bacterium and preventing Lyme disease so that a future vaccine can be developed.
"This award will fund critical development of effective Lyme disease vaccines, treatments and diagnostics and will help further curtail the spread of tickborne infections across New York State,” State Health Commissioner James McDonald said.
Mantis's team will include researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the New York Structural Biology Center and the University of Washington. They will also be joined by the biopharmaceutical company Antigen Discovery, Inc.
“The research award from NIAID enables us to employ cutting-edge molecular technologies to address critical scientific questions related to how antibodies contribute to clearing B. burgorferi infections and preventing the onset of Lyme disease in both children and adults,” Mantis said.