First Lyme Disease Research Center In Nation Launches At Columbia University Medical Center
NEW YORK – Columbia University Medical Center celebrates the launch of the Lyme & Tick-borne Diseases Research Center, the first university center for the study of Lyme disease in the U.S. The center, with the instrumental and ongoing support of Time for Lyme, Inc. and Lyme Disease Association, Inc., will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of CUMC’s physician-scientists and the latest advances in medical technology to help unravel the complexities of Lyme and tick-borne diseases.
The center, located within the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Medical Center in upper Manhattan, will be led by Brian Fallon, M.D., M.P.H., director of Lyme and Tick-borne Disease Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center.
The Lyme & Tick-borne Diseases Research Center will focus on clinical research aimed at developing novel therapies, basic science to unravel disease mechanisms and to identify better diagnostic tests, and education of both medical students and physicians on how to best evaluate and treat patients. With a focus on the particular problems faced by patients with chronic persistent symptoms, the center will lead the country in research to bring the light of science to many unanswered and controversial questions.
The center is involved in major Lyme disease research projects including a multi-institutional diagnostic research project involving Columbia University Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health, the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, and the U.S. Department of Energy. The center is also developing a a brain bank for autopsy specimens from patients with neurologic Lyme disease to study the neuropathology of Lyme disease.
Dr. Fallon and his team recently completed a PET imaging study of chronic Lyme disease, which highlights ways that functional brain imaging can be used to identify biomarkers with potentially valuable diagnostic and treatment implications for patients with chronic Lyme disease.
About Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector borne, or organism-transmitted, disease in the United States. New York state accounts for 24 percent of all cases of Lyme disease reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) annually, with the annual incidence rate over the last 3 years increasing by 15 percent. New York state with its neighboring states of N.J., Conn., and Pa. accounted for 64 percent of all cases of Lyme disease reported to the CDC last year. May to August are the peak months for contracting Lyme disease.
Lyme disease when diagnosed and treated early is rarely a problem. When early diagnosis is missed, the manifestations can be diverse and the treatment more complex, with some patients developing chronic symptoms with functional impairment comparable to that caused by congestive heart failure.
The Scientific Advisory Board for the Columbia Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center brings together internationally-renowned scientists, including Dr. Claire Fraser (led the team that mapped the Borrelia Genome), Dr. Janis Weis (pathogenesis of Lyme arthritis), Dr. John Mann (translational neuroscience), Dr. Steven Schutzer (novel diagnostic tests), Dr. Ian Lipkin (foreign pathogen identification), Dr. Jorge Benach (Borrelia and Coinfections), Dr. Scott Hammer (infectious disease), Dr. Diego Cadavid (neuropathology and neurology), Dr. Ronald Van Heertum (neuroimaging), and Dr. Aaron Mitchell (molecular pathogenesis).
For more information on Lyme disease research at Columbia University Medical Center, visit: http://www.columbia-lyme.org/. ### Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. www.cumc.columbia.edu