2012-ColumbiaTeamSmThe national New Jersey-based Lyme Disease Association, Inc. (LDA) and Connecticut-based Time For Lyme (TFL) who are affiliated organizations, partnered with Columbia in the development of this center concept and devoted a large percent of their efforts and resources over 5 years to funding the endowment for the Center. People nationwide contributed to make this effort a success.
The Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center will use the vast resources of Columbia University in New York to bring together various disciplines from within and outside of the university to address fundamental clinical and basic science questions that plague adults and children affected by Lyme disease.
The clinical and research mission includes studies of new diagnostic tests, clinical phenomenology, immunopathogenesis, co-infections, genetic markers of vulnerability, functional and structural brain imaging, neuoropathology of post-mortem brains, and well-controlled studies of new treatments. This Center, the first such facility in the world devoted to chronic Lyme disease, will serve as a national resource, providing pilot grants to researchers nation-wide and focusing the latest scientific technology on helping to resolve the problems of chronic Lyme disease.