New York State Department of Health Microbiologist Receives $9 Million Contract From The National Institutes of Health to Seek New Lyme Disease Treatments and Vaccines

Five-Year Contract Enables Department to Advance Understanding of the Bacterium Causing Lyme Disease

Commissioner McDonald Discusses How This Funding Will Support Lyme Disease Research with Dr. Mantis on Department's "New York Public Health Now" Podcast

ALBANY, N.Y. (January 27, 2025) – The New York State Department of Health is proud to announce that Dr. Nicholas Mantis, Chief of the Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center, has been awarded a five-year $9.5 million contract to seek new Lyme disease treatments and vaccines.

The contract–which was awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health–aims to advance our understanding of the human immune response to the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease.

"This award will fund critical development of effective Lyme disease vaccines, treatments and diagnostics and will help further curtail the spread of tickborne infections across New York State," State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said. "Dr. Mantis is a renowned research scientist focused on improving our response to a range of health concerns—including Lyme disease—and we are honored to have him as a vital part of our Wadsworth Center team."

"The research award from NIAID enables us to employ cutting-edge molecular technologies to address critical scientific questions related to how antibodies contribute to clearing B. burgorferi infections and preventing the onset of Lyme disease in both children and adults," Dr. Nicholas Mantis said.

Dr. Mantis' research team includes investigators from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the New York Structural Biology Center, the University of Washington and biopharmaceutical company, Antigen Discovery, Inc.

Specifically, the team will decipher which B. burgorferi surface proteins are targeted by human antibodies and which antibody responses contribute to disease clearance and resolution.

Dr. Mantis recently joined as a guest on the State Health Department's podcast, New York Public Health Now, with State Health Commissioner McDonald and Deputy Executive Commissioner Johanne Morne, to discuss the vital role of microbiology research to battle emerging health threats, including Lyme disease and the NIAID grant funding. That episode and more can be found here.

More information on Dr. Mantis' work, including research projects underway in the Mantis Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center, visit here.