Prof. Kim Lewis
Lewis, who directs the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern, seeks to achieve two major goals with the help of funds from the Cohen Foundation: Develop a treatment for chronic Lyme disease, and discover drugs that will eradicate the pathogen at early stages of the disease, which will prevent the development of PTLDS.

New Approach to Lyme Disease Treatment

“Nobody has been developing drugs against Borrelia, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Antibiotics to treat this pathogen have been borrowed from other applications, but Borrelia is unique. Its biology is very different, so this borrowing approach from other pathogens is not optimal. We are looking for compounds that specifically hit Borrelia.”

The Cohen Foundation recently made a major commitment to Lyme disease treatments by donating $6.5 million toward Lyme research, including work being done in Lewis’ lab.