Development of a near-care diagnostic test for Lyme disease

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Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in North America. New cases of Lymedisease are on the rise throughout Canada, which has prompted increased awareness of thedisease and raised issues with the currently available tests used for diagnosis. The currenttests rely on detection of antibodies found in the patients blood that are produced in responseto bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Because these antibody responses develop over timeand vary with degree of infection, the test can be problematic for diagnosing early infection,which may delay antibiotic therapy. Recently, there has been a push to identify additionalnon-antibody Lyme disease markers for use in diagnosis. This research will use a sensitiveand powerful protein discovery approach to mine blood samples for new markers of Lymedisease. The proteins identified will be used to develop an improved test for detecting Lymedisease.