Had you heard the news out of ASM2014 (American Society for Microbiology)? Kim Lewis from Northeastern has been doing research on what are called persisters (bacteria that can survive antibiotics without being killed). He had been granted about $6M in NIH (National Institute of Health) funding plus was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for chronic TB due to persisters.
So he is the real deal in chronic infections and drug discovery to cure TB persisters and also has a culture team for bacteria that are difficult to culture. He was funded $.5M by the LRA (Lyme Research Alliance) to see if Borrelia has persisters which might explain chronic Lyme and lead to a cure.
At ASM2014 they released the first results and Borrelia does produce persisters. This might be the most important Lyme news in a long time. Kim Lewis was the researcher who discovered and cured MRSA chronic infections due to persisters and not due to mutant, resistant bacteria.
Watch Kim Lewis's video on the Paradox of Chronic Infections.... Its worth watching! This video was done before the recent announcement at ASM 2014 but watch with that discovery in mind and that this researcher received $6M from the NIH. The NIH is cautious in selecting grant recipients, as is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
But will the IDSA listen?
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