Student Researcher Pursues Technology to Improve Lyme Disease Diagnosis
Outcome/Accomplishment
For many patients with tick-borne Lyme disease, the hardest part of getting better is first getting a clear diagnosis. Symptoms can be confusing, early tests can miss infections, and the current recommended testing process often requires multiple steps before patients and doctors have the information they need. UCLA undergraduate researcher Olivia Goodreau, a student at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Under-resourced Populations (NSF PATHS-UP) Engineering Research Center (ERC) headquartered at Texas A&M University (TAMU), has helped to solve this problem. She is a key member of a UCLA research group that has developed a new single-test approach for diagnosing Lyme disease.
Impact/Benefits
Based on PATHS-UP’s novel vertical flow assay platform, the single-test Lyme disease diagnostic promises to give patients faster answers and support earlier treatment. Undergraduate ERC students like Ms. Goodreau, led by their faculty mentors, Professors Aydogan Ozcan and Dino Di Carlo, are continuing to advance the research in Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostics to new applications and are exploring making Lyme disease testing faster, simpler, and more accessible to individuals. At the same time, this project demonstrates how federally funded research and hands-on training opportunities for young scholars, such as those offered at an NSF ERC, can translate innovations into real-world health benefits.
Explanation/Background
For Olivia Goodreau, this challenge is personal. Olivia contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite at an early age and suffered for years before her condition was finally diagnosed. Once it was, treatment with appropriate antibiotics brought rapid relief (although there is currently no permanent cure).
After she recovered, at the age of only 12 Olivia founded the LivLyme Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness, funding research, and improving care for Lyme disease patients, especially children. She was attracted to UCLA, a PATHS-UP partner institution, by the ERC’s ongoing research on Lyme disease detection. Instead of relying on the traditional two-step testing process for Lyme disease diagnosis, the new single test developed at PATHS-UP is designed to detect multiple Lyme disease markers at once from a single sample.
Through undergraduate research opportunities at PATHS-UP, Olivia and many other young engineers and scholars have received hands-on research training by working on cutting-edge diagnostic technologies. Olivia and her fellow UCLA undergraduates, Cristian Santos, Aoi Tomoeda, Adrian Anaya, and Sunny Do received top awards at UCLA’s prestigious Undergraduate Research Symposium for their Lyme disease-related research projects. In her remarks, Olivia said, “I’ve lived with the consequences of delayed and inaccurate Lyme disease testing. That’s what drives me every day. Winning these awards means the scientific community sees the urgency and promise of this work—and that gives me hope for the millions still suffering without answers.”
The impact of this work extends beyond the laboratory and the university. Olivia was recently invited to bring her perspective as both a patient advocate and student researcher to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-convened Lyme Disease Summit, where she spoke about the urgent need for better Lyme disease diagnostics and highlighted the promise of this new test. Her story reflects what NSF ERCs are uniquely positioned to do: drive fundamental engineering advance to solve real-world challenges while training the next generation of engineers, scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs.
Location
College Station, Texaswebsite
Start Year
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Lead Institution
Core Partners
Fact Sheet
Outcome/Accomplishment
For many patients with tick-borne Lyme disease, the hardest part of getting better is first getting a clear diagnosis. Symptoms can be confusing, early tests can miss infections, and the current recommended testing process often requires multiple steps before patients and doctors have the information they need. UCLA undergraduate researcher Olivia Goodreau, a student at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Under-resourced Populations (NSF PATHS-UP) Engineering Research Center (ERC) headquartered at Texas A&M University (TAMU), has helped to solve this problem. She is a key member of a UCLA research group that has developed a new single-test approach for diagnosing Lyme disease.
Location
College Station, Texaswebsite
Start Year
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Lead Institution
Core Partners
Fact Sheet
Impact/benefits
Based on PATHS-UP’s novel vertical flow assay platform, the single-test Lyme disease diagnostic promises to give patients faster answers and support earlier treatment. Undergraduate ERC students like Ms. Goodreau, led by their faculty mentors, Professors Aydogan Ozcan and Dino Di Carlo, are continuing to advance the research in Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostics to new applications and are exploring making Lyme disease testing faster, simpler, and more accessible to individuals. At the same time, this project demonstrates how federally funded research and hands-on training opportunities for young scholars, such as those offered at an NSF ERC, can translate innovations into real-world health benefits.
Explanation/Background
For Olivia Goodreau, this challenge is personal. Olivia contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite at an early age and suffered for years before her condition was finally diagnosed. Once it was, treatment with appropriate antibiotics brought rapid relief (although there is currently no permanent cure).
After she recovered, at the age of only 12 Olivia founded the LivLyme Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness, funding research, and improving care for Lyme disease patients, especially children. She was attracted to UCLA, a PATHS-UP partner institution, by the ERC’s ongoing research on Lyme disease detection. Instead of relying on the traditional two-step testing process for Lyme disease diagnosis, the new single test developed at PATHS-UP is designed to detect multiple Lyme disease markers at once from a single sample.
Through undergraduate research opportunities at PATHS-UP, Olivia and many other young engineers and scholars have received hands-on research training by working on cutting-edge diagnostic technologies. Olivia and her fellow UCLA undergraduates, Cristian Santos, Aoi Tomoeda, Adrian Anaya, and Sunny Do received top awards at UCLA’s prestigious Undergraduate Research Symposium for their Lyme disease-related research projects. In her remarks, Olivia said, “I’ve lived with the consequences of delayed and inaccurate Lyme disease testing. That’s what drives me every day. Winning these awards means the scientific community sees the urgency and promise of this work—and that gives me hope for the millions still suffering without answers.”
The impact of this work extends beyond the laboratory and the university. Olivia was recently invited to bring her perspective as both a patient advocate and student researcher to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-convened Lyme Disease Summit, where she spoke about the urgent need for better Lyme disease diagnostics and highlighted the promise of this new test. Her story reflects what NSF ERCs are uniquely positioned to do: drive fundamental engineering advance to solve real-world challenges while training the next generation of engineers, scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs.