Columbia University Lyme & Tick-borne Diseases Center

Director:  Brian A. Fallon, MD 
Associate Director: Kathy M. Corbera, MD
Web: www.columbia-lyme.org
 
What is the Lyme & Tick-borne Diseases Research Center?

This is a Center for Research established by the Trustees of Columbia University in collaboration with Time for Lyme, Inc. and the Lyme Disease Association.  The mission of the scientists who comprise this inter-departmental Center is to use the vast biotechnological resources, lab space, and clinical facilities available at the Columbia University Medical Center to unravel the complexities of Lyme & tick-borne diseases.

 Benefits of Columbia University

• International recognition for excellence in scientific research and medical care, with two recent Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology
• Leadership in the study of chronic Lyme disease in children and adults - phenomenology, diagnostics, treatment, imaging & biomarkers of response
• Collaboration among experts in diagnostics, genetics, immunology, infectious disease, neurology, nuclear medicine, pathology, psychiatry, therapeutic trials
• Access to an extraordinary number of patients with Lyme disease (NYS, NJ, CT, PA, MA account for 74% of all cases reported to the CDC each year).

Research Projects: Recent or Planned

• Ticks: search for other pathogens
• Biomarkers & Diagnostics: HLA, Proteomics on CSF, CD57, immune complexes, PCR, comparative lab testing, SPECT
• Treatments: controlled trials
• Neuroimaging markers of inflammation
• Neuropathology: brain bank

 
What are the primary aims of the Center?

• Clinical Research-to evaluate new treatments & identify biomarkers that predict who will respond to treatment. A specimen bank facilitates the investigation of new diagnostic tests.
• Basic Science-to use the latest in molecular genetics, immunology, and proteomics to identify better diagnostic tests and to unravel the mechanisms by which tick-borne pathogens cause disease.
• Education- to educate medical students and physicians through fellowships and national conferences.

 
How will these aims be achieved?

• Targeting research toward the main areas of clinical concern
• Funding of Research by scientists from different disciplines working collaboratively... at Columbia and internationally. In this way, scientific progress can occur with maximum speed & efficiency. 
   

Scientific Advisory & Review Board Members

Research Chiefs from Columbia:

• Scott Hammer, MD
  Chief of Infectious Diseases and Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
• J. John Mann, MD, PhD.
  Professor of Translational Neuroscience, Director of Research, NYSPI
• Aaron P. Mitchell, PhD.
  Chairman of Microbiology, Professor of Molecular Pathogenesis
• Ronald Van Heertum, MD
  Vice-chair of Radiology and Director of Nuclear Medicine
• Robert Winchester, MD
  Chief, Rheumatology, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, & Pathology

Other Research Faculty from Columbia:

• Carolyn Britton, MD (Neurology)
• Edward Dwyer, MD (Rheumatology)
• Andrew Dwork, MD (Neuropathology)
• Pamela Gallin, MD (Pediatric Ophthalmology)
• Mady Hornig, MD (Epidemiology & Translational Research)
• John Keilp, PhD (Neuropsychology)
• Brian Scully, MD (Infectious Disease)

Leading Scientists from other Universities:

• Jorge Benach, PhD.
  Professor & Director of Center for Infectious Diseases, SUNY Stony Brook
• Diego Cadavid, MD
  Associate Professor of Neurology, UMDNJ
• Claire Fraser, PhD.
  President & Director of the Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, MD
• Steven Schutzer, MD
  Professor of Medicine, UMDNJ
• Janis Weis, PhD.
  Professor of Pathology, Univ. of Utah

Ex-Officio Member from Columbia

• Gerald Fischbach, MD
  Professor of Pharmacology, former Dean of the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons and Director of NINDS at NIH

Training Fellowships

• Microbiology. A post-doc Fellowship in molecular genetics & infectious disease was started to determine what other organisms may be within ticks.
• Clinical Diagnosis & Treatment. A post-residency Fellowship in Tick-borne Diseases was established in 2005 to fill the urgent need for more doctors to treat children and adults with TBD.