Funded Research

---

“We are really excited, that together with the Lyme Treatment Foundation we have found a way to move this project forward. The project will now be solely Oxford based, and we will look at blood samples from Chronic Lyme patients who have been on a long-term course of antibiotics with Professor Jack Lambert at University College Dublin. Seventy percent of patients show improvement on this treatment. 

We will investigate blood samples before treatment, after 2 months antibiotics and at 6 months follow up. Our primary objective is to identify pathogens in the blood samples and see if we can link a reduction in pathogens to improvement in symptoms. 

We have just taken on a research assistant Ms Francesca Byrne who will work on this project 1.5 days per week. The project focuses primarily on running a large number of samples through a new high sensitivity pathogen sequencing approach to work up the methodology. 

In addition, Fran will set up L-Form cultures from standard laboratory strains testing a panel of antibiotics to see which are effective on this persistent form of bacteria. We will also attempt to set up a protocol for growing L-Form cultures from the blood of Chronic Lyme patients. 

This study, which if successful will make us competitive for grant funding in the future for larger clinical projects.”

-Dr. Karl Morten, The University of Oxford