Kicking off a multiyear competition to accelerate development of Lyme disease diagnostics

Two years ago, “PCR testing” and “antibody tests” were phrases that didn’t come up in casual conversation; now, many of us quote our neighborhood COVID positivity stats as if they were sports scores. The coronavirus pandemic has emphasized the public health impact of testing and the world of possibility around diagnostics. Capturing this momentum could help transform diagnosis and care for other epidemics, including Lyme disease. Better diagnostics yield better information, which yields better decisions and responses. If we can measure a problem and understand how big it is, we’re one step closer to solving it.

As part of its Lyme Innovation Accelerator (LymeX) partnership with the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today a planned prize competition for scientific, technical, and clinical innovation to transform the diagnostics ecosystem for Lyme disease.

Through an interagency agreement with the NASA Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, the LymeX partnership is kicking off a $10+ million competition to accelerate the development of Lyme disease diagnostics.

The LymeX Diagnostics Prize will call on scientific, technical, and clinical experts to submit innovative detection methods that will advance Lyme disease diagnostics. The ultimate goal of the competition is to develop diagnostics, which would be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for review, that detect active Lyme disease infections in people.

The multiyear competition, designed by Luminary Labs through a NASA Tournament Lab contract, is expected to launch in spring 2022. Find out more on Challenge.gov and sign up for competition updates.