(Bozeman) Funding from the National Institutes of Health will allow a Montana State University research team to deepen explorations into a disease that is posing an increasing threat in the U.S.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks, and nearly 90,000 cases in the U.S. were reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023.
The most prevalent tick-borne disease in the Northern hemisphere, it can be passed from ticks to other animals, such as mice or deer, or to humans via tick bites, and can cause long-lasting syndromes for those who become infected.
UM will use an NIH grant of $2.8 million over five years to study adaptations in the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, aiming to better illuminate how it circumvents its host’s immune system to establish infection.
