Topic: Advancing Lyme Disease Therapeutics Through a Multimodal Screening Approach
Guest Speaker: Michael Ronzetti, National TL1 Visiting Scientist
Host: The Georgia CTSA
Date: Friday, July 26, 2024
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. ET
Location: Zoom via https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEude-qqTouHNDjsE39gD1TectAc9atAKfZ
Lyme disease remains a significant public health concern with over half a million cases reported annually that results in an economic burden of nearly $3 billion. Current treatments fail to completely clear the infection in nearly 15% of cases and lose effectiveness as the disease progresses, highlighting the need for new and more potent therapeutics. By employing parallel approaches—phenotypic screening of live Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the causative agent of Lyme disease, and target-based drug design focusing on a known protease—we have identified several promising candidates with potential applications for eradicating the bacteria in vivo.
