As we mark Lyme Illness Consciousness Month this Would possibly, HHS is proud to have fun the 10 groups collaborating in Segment 2 of the LymeX Diagnostics Prize. Without equal objective of HHS and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Basis’s LymeX Innovation Accelerator (LymeX) pageant is to nurture the improvement of diagnostics towards Meals and Drug Management overview.
The present two-tier antibody checking out machine—in the beginning advanced in 1994 for illness surveillance, now not as a stand-alone diagnostic take a look at—is determined by the presence of antibodies and will best be used as it should be 4 to 6 weeks after the affected person turns into inflamed.
Accelerating innovation via money prizes and skilled sources
Via September 2023, ten groups are collaborating within the Segment 2 digital accelerator, which provides get right of entry to to digital studying, mentorship, biorepository material experience, and networking alternatives. With prior paintings in spaces starting from sepsis to genetic sequencing and glycomics, the accelerator cohort is making use of a large vary of experience to their proposed next-generation diagnostics.
Through the usage of a prize pageant style, the LymeX Diagnostics Prize provides money prizes along a spread of non-monetary sources. The contest is designed to stimulate the marketplace for Lyme illness diagnostics by means of serving to entrants conquer diagnostic building limitations with prize price range and technical help—whilst additionally fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Making improvements to checking out accessibility is necessary to bettering affected person results, and groups are already starting to imagine the problem with the assistance of scientific research and instrument design sources. Over the summer season, the cohort will take part in roundtable discussions with sufferers and clinicians as they refine their ideas.
The LymeX Diagnostics Prize is surroundings a brand new bar for innovation in illness diagnostics. If assessments are effectively validated, the cohort’s paintings may just lend a hand beef up Lyme illness remedy general—in addition to assessments for different infectious sicknesses.
Taking a look forward: Knowledgeable judging panel to convene in October 2023
Following the accelerator, the cohort will post thought papers that element resolution refinement, scientific and affected person enter, and a roadmap from lab to marketplace.
The contest judging panel—composed of mavens throughout biology, scientific and era translation, affected person revel in and advocacy, diagnostic science and era, exponential innovation, and ethics—will evaluation eligible submissions in keeping with respectable Segment 2 analysis standards. In keeping with the judges’ critiques, they’re going to counsel as much as 5 Segment 2 winners of the LymeX Diagnostics Prize.
The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Basis has made a beneficiant $10 million pledge to the LymeX Diagnostics Prize. HHS and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Basis awarded $1 million in Segment 1 of the LymeX Diagnostics Prize, with $9 million in more LymeX prizes projected to be to be had in long run stages, together with Segment 2. A collection of accelerator sources can be made to be had to the general public at the pageant website online to fortify broader innovation in Lyme illness diagnostics and remedy.
To obtain all Segment 2 updates, subscribe to the LymeX Diagnostics Prize e-newsletter and observe @Lyme_X on Twitter.