{"id":7442,"date":"2025-07-09T10:20:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=7442"},"modified":"2025-07-16T10:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:12:22","slug":"pef-scientist-secures-9m-grant-to-study-human-immune-response-to-lyme-disease-bacteria-with-eye-toward-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-43-no-6\/pef-scientist-secures-9m-grant-to-study-human-immune-response-to-lyme-disease-bacteria-with-eye-toward-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"PEF scientist secures $9M grant to study human immune response to Lyme disease bacteria with eye toward treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.
Dr. Nicholas Mantis in the Mantis Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center in Albany.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 18, 2025 —<\/em> While studying infectious disease as an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Nicholas Mantis found his calling.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI learned through a combination of coursework and lab experience that infectious diseases are an interplay between the pathogen and the host,\u201d Dr. Mantis said. \u201cAnd that the outcome of a disease is largely dictated by your immune response. I just became fascinated with that whole interaction.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Mantis, a research scientist and PEF member in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Wadsworth Center since 2004, was recently awarded a five-year, $9 million contract by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study human antibody responses to the Lyme disease pathogen,\u202f<\/span>Borrelia burgdorferi<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe bacterium is initially deposited in your skin at the site of a bite, and then it spreads through the skin and then through the bloodstream, then to organs, including the brain,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring the course of that, you\u2019re mounting an active immune response. The question is: why do some individuals clear the infection very quickly and other people will have prolonged symptoms, and some will have persistent symptoms even after antibiotic treatment?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Answering those questions could have a significant impact, especially in localities plagued by an abundance of ticks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really think it\u2019s the decisions, if you will, made by the immune response during those early events that dictate the outcome,\u201d Dr. Mantis said. \u201cThat\u2019s our main focus. Our goal would be some kind of preventative that could be in the form of a vaccine or possibly even finding treatments for individuals who suffer from persistent symptoms associated with Lyme.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A lab technician explains how scientists use artificial feeding chambers to research disease transmission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Dr. Mantis spends much of his time in his office working on manuscripts, grant applications and administrative tasks, lab technicians and research scientists in his group focus closely on the ticks themselves, which they obtain from a national biorepository and import into the lab for study.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take ticks and infect them with the bacteria in the lab and then put them in an infection model,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can either use artificial feeding chambers or we have a system that mimics human skin and they\u2019ll feed on that.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lab also does mouse studies, pre-treating mice with different antibodies, putting the ticks on the mice, and then seeing if the mice get infected. Those projects can be a month long and require daily monitoring. Some of the samples in the lab are human, collected in collaboration with Albany Medical Center. Research staff can profile those samples and look at the differences between the patients who are healthy and those who exhibit Lyme symptoms. Samples range from children to adults and of varying ages and demographics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The research done in the Mantis Laboratory could also improve outcomes for other tickborne illnesses carried by the black-legged tick, including babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis, to name a few.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the mechanisms of transmission are similar, and the immune pathways are shared,\u201d Dr. Mantis said. \u201cSo, understanding one, the borrelia infection, will probably lead to understanding of the other pathogens, how they are transmitted and how immunity arises.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Securing the contract<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the National Institutes of Health released a solicitation for research relating to understanding human antibody responses in general, to allergies, food allergies, autoimmunity, and infectious diseases, Dr. Mantis and colleagues put together their proposal to study Lyme and submitted it through a competitive process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur proposal was obviously focused on Lyme disease, but it\u2019s actually a multidisciplinary program,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s based here at the Wadsworth Center, but we have collaborators at New York Structural Biology Center in Manhattan, the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass., the University of Washington in Seattle, and a company in San Diego. It was a very competitive award.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Mantis said the five-year contract, in this political climate of federal cuts, is vital to the success of the research.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVirtually everybody\u2019s career in the lab and in the Center is supported through federal research grants,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to stress that maintaining that sustained effort and support from the federal government is critical to Lyme disease research and research into virtually every disease.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Interested in research?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For aspiring scientists, Dr. Mantis said the lab welcomes high school students during the summer, who they pair with a University of Albany program.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe program actually gives you credit and a structure in which to start your research career in high school,\u201d he said. \u201cI would also stress to students that science these days is multidisciplinary, so anybody who\u2019s interested in computers or bioinformatics or immunology or infectious disease, there is a place for you.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dealing with ticks at home<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Department of Health staff, along with public health partners, are in the process of collecting ticks to assemble data for this spring but emphasize that it only takes one tick bite to result in infection \u2014 so whether tick populations are high or relatively low, prevention recommendations remain the same and New Yorkers should take precautions to prevent tick bites.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deer ticks live in shady, moist areas and will cling to tall grass, brush and shrubs, usually no more than 18 to 24 inches off the ground. They also live in lawns and gardens, especially at the edges of woods and around stone walls. They can\u2019t jump or fly and won\u2019t drop onto pets or people. Once a tick gets on the skin, it generally climbs upward until it reaches a protected area.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ways you can protect yourself<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • Wear light-colored clothing with a tight weave to spot ticks easily.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    • Wear enclosed shoes, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Tuck pant legs into socks or boots and shirt into pants.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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      • Check clothes and any exposed skin frequently for ticks while outdoors.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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        • Consider using insect repellent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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          • Stay on cleared, well-traveled trails. Walk in the center of trails. Avoid dense woods and bushy areas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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            • Avoid sitting directly on the ground or on stone walls.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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              • Keep long hair tied back, especially when gardening.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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                • Bathe or shower as soon as possible after going indoors (preferably within two hours) to wash off and more easily find ticks that may be on you.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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                  • Do a final, full-body tick check at the end of the day (also check children and pets) and remove ticks promptly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                    According to <\/span>NYSDOH<\/span><\/a>, the three most common ticks in New York are the deer (black-legged) tick, the American dog tick and the lone star tick. Only deer ticks carry Lyme bacteria. Young deer ticks, called nymphs, are brown and the size of poppy seeds. Adult female deer ticks are red and black, and males are black. Adult deer ticks are about the size of a sesame seed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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