Events

INFEST-igate LYME, June 20-21st, 2024, Boston, MA

Lyme Researchers Networking Conference

The Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative sponsored a conference for Lyme disease researchers June 20-21st, at Tufts University, Medford, MA.  The goal of this conference was to develop networks within the Lyme research community to ensure the future of the next generation of investigators. It was a different kind of conference filled with elevator pitches, speed networking for collaborations, meet the funders and “Shark tank” evaluation of proposals!!  

Attendance was open to Lyme faculty researchers at all levels and to post-doctoral fellows.  We had over 100 attendees.   We are proud to report that we accepted 100% of applicants and offered talks to all who requested.

Selected comments from attendees:

“by far the best conference I have ever attended”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect from the speed networking but it was fun even for a shy person like me”

“I loved that people were kept to time in such a creative way” “loved the walkoff music”

“I really prefer the elevator pitches to posters; I wish more conferences would take this approach”

“I can’t wait for the next one”

The Final Program is available here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organizing committee:

Alan Barbour, University of California, Irvine

Jorge Benach, Stonybrook University

Linda Bockenstedt, Yale University

Jenifer Coburn, Medical College of Wisconsin

Linden Hu, Tufts University

John Leong, Tufts University

Justin Radolf, University of Connecticut

Patti Rosa, Rocky Mountain Laboratories (emeritus)

Ira Schwartz, New York Medical College

Janis Weis, University of Utah

 

Planning committee

Trever Smith, Chair, Tufts University

Philip Adams, National Institutes of Health

Nicole Baumgarth, Johns Hopkins University

Jeffrey Bourgeois, Tufts University

Nadine Bowden, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Brandon Jutras, Virginia Tech

Maria Gomes-Solecki, University of Tennessee

Yi-Pin Lin, Tufts University

Sukanya Narasimhan, Yale University

Nicholas Ogden, Public Health Agency of Canada

Raj Priya, Indiana University

Sajith Raghunandanan, Indiana University

Isobel Ronai, Harvard University

Bikash Sahay, University of Florida

Nick Takacs, Northeastern University

Michal Tal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Alvaro Toledo, Rutgers University

Mark Wooten, University of Toledo

Wolf Zuckert, University of Kansas

 

We are grateful to our sponsors:

Hugh Roome

Pfizer

Bay Area Lyme Foundation

What was the Tufts Lyme Disease Challenge?

A day of panel discussions, breakout sessions, team competition, food and prizes – as Tufts meets the challenge to end Lyme disease by 2030!

Supported by Tufts University Trustee, Hugh Roome, the Lyme Disease Challenge was a competition to encourage the best young minds of the University to work together in teams to solve some of the many issues that have stood in the way of reducing Lyme disease.  

The afternoon begun with an introduction to Lyme disease and the public health problem it presents by Dr. Amy Ullmann of CDC. This was followed by short, focused panel discussions highlighting some of the major barriers to success in controlling Lyme disease and an examination of why it continues to expand despite our best efforts.   We discussed gaps in public policy, education, diagnosis, treatment, animal health, ecology/epidemiology and basic knowledge about the organism causing the disease.

The participants had the opportunity to form teams and develop their approaches with the assistance of the coaches who brought expertise in specific areas of Lyme disease.  

Teams then presented their ideas to the group at the end of the day for feedback. After the event, teams were asked to submit video proposals that competed for funding to help turn their ideas into action.

The following video proposals were submitted: