Conference Summary

2017 Conference speakersEarly Conference Registration Has Begun!

Cutting Edge Research & Opportunity to Network with Researchers & Doctors


Looking for the real facts on Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases− what’s happening with coinfections such as Powassan, B. miyamotoi and with Bartonella? Why do Lyme patients often have low blood pressure–how does Lyme affect the heart, breathing, and digestive process when the autonomic nervous system is disrupted? How does inflammation from Lyme affect the brain and how can it be treated? Biofilms and persisters, what are they and are they causing chronic Lyme disease?

Register now online for the Lyme Disease Association (LDA) & Columbia University’s 18th annual, conference, Lyme & Other Tick-Borne Diseases: What Clinicians Need to Know about an Expanding Epidemic, which will be held at the Hilton Penns Landing on the banks of the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, PA, on Sept. 23 & 24, 2017.  Early bird prices are available now.

The conference is designed for physicians and researchers but the public is invited to register and all registrants can attend a reception and network with the conference faculty. Medical students/post docs are encouraged to apply for scholarships. CME credits will be offered by Columbia University to CME-registered physician attendees. The conference will feature 20 faculty consisting of clinicians and researchers from across the US and one from Canada.

The conference lectures detail very current research that could alter the field. The Keynote speaker, Nicole Baumgarth, UC Davis, will discuss Bb outmaneuvering the adaptive immune system. Other faculty include Garth Erlich, Drexel, Pan-Diagnostics for Lyme & Co-Infections; Eva Sapi UNH, Lyme & biofilms; Ying Zhang, Johns Hopkins, persisters & Lyme; John Aucott, immune biomarkers & Lyme; Sheila Arvikar, Mass Gen Hospital, autoimmune disorders following Lyme; Brian Fallon, Columbia, also Conference Director, Why Do Symptoms Persist?; Robert Bransfield, Rutgers-RWJ, inflammation & neuro Lyme; Diego Cadavid, Harvard/Biogen, treatment of neuro Lyme.

More speakers are Saravanan Thangamani, University of Texas Medical Branch, Powassan; Travis Taylor, University of Toledo, Powassan/Tick-Borne Flavivirus; Sam Telford, Tufts who discusses Babesia microti, duncani, & B. miyamotoi; Ed Breitschwerdt, NCSU, Bartonella; Maya Jeraf, UNC, Alpha-gal meat allergy; Monica Embers, Tulane, next generation diagnostics; Safwan Jaradeh, Stanford, autonomic dysfunction & Lyme; Adrian Baranchuk, Queen’s University, Lyme Carditis and High Degree AV Block; Ahmet Z. Burakgazi, Virginia Tech, optic neuritis and probable Lyme; Christopher D. Paddock, CDC, Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Rickettsioses in the U.S.; Lorraine Johnson, LymeDisease.org, big data on Lyme research priorities; and a panel discussion of chronic Lyme. Poster presenters will also present their studies and be available to answer questions.

Thanks to the support of the Cohen Foundation for scholarship and other support. Thanks also to IGeneX for commercial support of the program. Details can be found on the Lyme Disease Association website conference pages.