Mission

LymeX will accelerate Lyme Innovation progress and strategically advance tick-borne-disease solutions in direct collaboration with Lyme patients, patient advocates, and diverse stakeholders across academia, nonprofits, industry, and government.

Vision

Lyme disease is easily prevented and accurately diagnosed at all stages of the disease, with effective treatments that all Americans can afford.

Core values

Accountability: The buck stops here.

Collaboration: Citizens and patients are equal partners.

Compassion: Finding solutions to relieve suffering.

Excellence: Quality, real-world evidence underlies decision-making.

Honesty/Integrity: Find the truth. Tell the truth.

Innovation: Shifting paradigms. Finding a better way.

Respect: Everyone is valued.

 

 

 

 

 

History

LymeX’s success story continues to unfold. Read on to see how our activities are making a positive real-world impact on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

Community-Led Lyme Innovation (2015-2018)

2015

Bottom-up community launches “Lyme Innovation.” Patients, entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, and academics organized a series of Lyme Innovation hackathons and events. These bottom-up efforts created new momentum while welcoming all stakeholders. Patients and practitioners worked side-by-side to accelerate innovation in Lyme disease diagnostics, treatment, and information-sharing across top-tier universities, using open data, open science, open innovation, and open source code.

2016

Lyme Innovation inspires Congressional action. The 21st Century Cures Act authorized the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (TBDWG) within HHS.

2017

TBDWG established. For the first time, the TBDWG brought together federal and public members to review government efforts and scientific research to make shared recommendations on advancing the field.

HHS Launches Lyme Innovation (2018-2020)

November 2018

HHS launches its Lyme Innovation initiative. The Federal government and HHS announced the new initiative to connect the bottom-up community needs and momentum with top-down, federal priorities and resources in response to the 2018 TBDWG report. 

December 2018

HHS hosts the Lyme Innovation Roundtable. To facilitate information-sharing and feedback from stakeholders, including patients, advocates, providers, clinicians, researchers, and policy makers, HHS conducted a Lyme Innovation Roundtable and published a summary report with actionable recommendations for the Lyme disease community.

January 2019

HHS takes part in the U.S. Census Bureau’s TOP Health tech sprint. The TOP Health tech sprint gave participants 14 weeks to tackle health-related challenges, including “How can we address Lyme and other tick-borne diseases through emerging technologies by coupling the power of the crowd and patient insights with data?” The sprint resulted in these tangible innovations: CURA Patient, Lyme Symptom Tracker app, TickTickBOOM!, and the TickTracker app.

February 2020

Lyme Innovation on Capitol Hill. Non-profit organizations honored members of Congress and HHS staff for their strong support of efforts to address Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. Lyme Innovation took center stage, with several of the initiative’s leaders receiving awards for outstanding efforts in advancing tools, technologies, and information-sharing resources relevant to these illnesses.

LymeX Partnership Launches (2020-Present)

October 2020

LymeX announcement at LymeMIND Conference. HHS and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation announce the formation of LymeX, the world’s largest Lyme disease public-private partnership.

January 2021

LymeX launches the Health+ Lyme Disease cycle. Starting from the viewpoint of patient-centered innovation, the LymeX Health+ (“health plus”) team completed almost 700 hours of interviews, listening sessions, and workshops.

February 2021

LymeX releases Request for Information (RFI). LymeX released an RFI to understand the current landscape and emerging technologies to improve Lyme disease diagnostics, receiving 32 responses from the public on how research and investments in rapidly developed COVID-19 diagnostics might be adapted or repurposed for Lyme and tick-borne diseases.

April 2021

LymeX hosts Bridging the Gap Roundtable. More than 1,500 viewers watched the LymeX Roundtable: Bridging the Trust Gap, featuring inclusive strategies and emerging technologies for tick-borne diseases. Afterward, approximately 70 participants—including patients, doctors, researchers, and policymakers—explored ways to improve cooperation and communication with a resulting report.

June 2021

LymeX Education and Awareness “Healthathon.” The Healthathon (similar to a hackathon, but as a health-focused sprint) called on the public to create educational materials to raise awareness about tick-borne disease prevention and help others benefit from the latest scientific findings. Participants from all walks of life, including two winning K-12 innovators, helped lead by example with Lyme Innovation progress. The LymeX Education and Awareness Healthathon resulted in five winners, including two K-12 innovators, whose work was socialized on YouTube and social media.

December 2021

LymeX announces partnerships with the NASA Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Partnerships with these two agencies represent a multidisciplinary effort to address the complex challenges presented by Lyme disease. The LymeX and NASA CoECI collaboration’s goal is to accelerate the development of Lyme disease diagnostic tests. The DARPA collaboration is related to early-detection methods that improve the federal response to infectious diseases.

January 2022

LymeX makes prelaunch announcement of the LymeX Diagnostics Prize. An optional Letters of Intent period for interested parties launched on challenge.gov.

March 2022

AcademyHealth includes Lyme disease in the 2022 Health Equity DataJam. AcademyHealth’s public call for members of the public with data skills to help address pressing health issues includes a track on health equity and Lyme disease. 

LymeX Diagnostics Prize Launched (2022-Present)

May 2022

LymeX launches the LymeX Diagnostics Prize. Phase 1 called on scientific, technical, and clinical experts to submit innovative methods for detecting active Lyme disease infections in people. Submissions were accepted from May 17 to August 8, 2022.

November 2022

LymeX announces 10 Phase 1 winners in the LymeX Diagnostics Prize. From May to August 2022, Phase 1 received 52 solutions for detecting active Lyme disease infections in people. The winners received $100,000 each and an invitation to participate in the second phase.

January 2023

LymeX launches Phase 2 of the LymeX Diagnostics Prize. The 10 winning teams from Phase 1 were invited to participate in the Phase 2 virtual accelerator. The accelerator offered the cohort access to virtual learning, mentorship, biorepository subject matter expertise, and networking opportunities designed to help the teams progress toward FDA review.

The LymeX Diagnostics Prize is a competition to accelerate the development of Lyme disease diagnostics.