WI Medical College Researcher to Focus on Lyme Disease

Medical College Researcher to Focus on Lyme Disease

The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a $1.9 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

Jenifer L. Coburn, PhD, professor of medicine, division of infectious disease, is the primary investigator of the grant.

Wisconsin is one of the states with a high incidence of Lyme disease, with 20,000 cases being diagnosed since tracking began in 1980. In the United States, 30,000 cases were diagnosed in 2010. Many patients are not diagnosed for weeks or months, and untreated cases can lead to permanent neurological impairment.

In this research project, Dr. Coburn will study a protein named P66, which is a part of the bacterium which causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. P66 has been shown to be critical to the ability of the bacterium to cause infection in mammals. Learning more about this protein and the way it contributes to infection could lead to novel approaches to prevention and early treatment of Lyme disease.
Original from Office of Public Affairs.