Lyme Disease Biobank Foundation

The Lyme Disease Biobank, sponsored by Bay Area Lyme Foundation, collects and characterizes vital blood, urine and tissue samples for researchers. By collecting blood and urine from untreated patients with early-stage Lyme disease and patients with chronic disease as well as tissue samples from late-stage Lyme patients, this important program will help dramatically improve research efforts to accelerate medical breakthroughs in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. The Lyme Disease Biobank is a collection of human biological samples that facilitates research of Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. Currently, there are 84 research projects relying on Biobank samples. These projects are helping to pave the way for new diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as making strides to improve our understanding of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases and co-infections. The Lyme Disease Biobank is working with collection sites throughout the country. Through the end of 2022, more than 15,500 samples were shipped to researchers. We collected samples from 161 participants in 2022 bringing our total to 1,174 participants. Our persistent Lyme cohort now includes 135 participants. Additionally, Lyme Disease Biobank collaborates with the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) for the collection of surgical and post-mortem tissue samples, and partners with MyLymeData.org, a project of LymeDisease.org, to pair samples with clinical information that can further enhance research. In 2022, tissue was collected from 8 donors: 4 post-mortem donors including 1 tissue transfer from autopsy, and 4 surgeries. Since 2019, tissue has been collected from 12 post-mortem donors and 11 surgical donors.