{"id":873424,"date":"2026-06-17T11:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/873424\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:34:16","slug":"lyme-disease-tick-test-home-test-kit-seeks-to-limit-spread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/873424\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyme disease tick test: Home test kit seeks to limit spread"},"content":{"rendered":"

But soon you\u2019ll be able to run a 15-minute tick test in your living room. It\u2019s called LymeAlert<\/a>, and it\u2019s due to go on sale in August, priced at $40 per test.<\/p>\n

Company founder Erin Dawicki<\/a>, a pediatric orthopedic physician assistant, came up with the concept while working toward an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to MIT because I was getting so angry at the US healthcare system,\u201d Dawicki said, \u201cbecause it forces me to treat people differently based on their insurance status and that\u2019s their socioeconomic status. And frankly, that goes against my ethical framework.\u201d<\/p>\n

She figured that an MIT degree would help her find technological solutions to even out health care disparities. \u201cI thought I was going to work on health care reform at the federal level,\u201d Dawicki said. \u201cClearly, the universe had other plans.<\/p>\n

Instead, she was \u201cdragged kicking and screaming\u201d into a course on health care entrepreneurship. Arriving two weeks after the course had begun, she was assigned to come up with a product to improve the treatment of Lyme disease. But she wasn\u2019t sure how to proceed.<\/p>\n

Dawicki\u2019s breakthrough came to her in the shower. \u201cI get phone calls all the time from my patients,\u201d she thought. \u201cHey, I found a tick on me. What do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Usually, Dawicki told them to come in and get a dose of an anti-Lyme antibiotic, just in case. But while over half of ticks in Massachusetts carry Lyme disease, nearly half do not. An unnecessary doctor visit costs money, and unnecessary doses of antibiotics increase the risk that diseases will become more resistant to the drug.<\/p>\n

Why not test the tick first? Just like that, Dawicki had her class project. When she suggested it in class, four fellow students offered to pitch in. So did Dawicki\u2019s husband, a mechanical engineer.<\/p>\n

The result is LymeAlert. The test is painless for humans, but hard on ticks. It comes with a plastic container and a built-in grinder. A user drops up to five ticks into the container, then closes and twists it, grinding the ticks into pulp. Next, the user inserts a piece of chemically treated paper, which changes color if Lyme disease bacteria are present.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the people who find a tick, and it\u2019s positive, we can give them one dose of antibiotic and have a pretty good chance of preventing the disease,\u201d Dawicki said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good news if it works, said Armin Alaedini, chief scientific officer of the Global Lyme Alliance<\/a>, a nonprofit seeking cures for the disease. A quick, simple Lyme test could give bite victims a head start on getting antibiotics. But \u201cif it\u2019s not a good test and it gives false positives, it can be misleading and it could cause panic,\u201d Alaedini said.<\/p>\n

In addition, he noted that the test won\u2019t reveal whether the tick is carrying other infectious agents, such as the tick-borne substance that causes Alpha-gal syndrome. \u201cThe best thing is to go see a doctor when you get that tick bite,\u201d Alaedini said.<\/p>\n

Dawicki concedes that LymeAlert can\u2019t test for every possible hazard. She said the company is working on a future version capable of detecting other pathogens, and hopes to bring it to market next year.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she said, it\u2019s especially important to get a head start on treating Lyme disease because it\u2019s the only major tick-borne infection that can be treated with an antibiotic before it becomes serious. Besides, infectious disease experts say<\/a> that the antibiotic should be administered within 72 hours of detecting the tick.<\/p>\n

Helping infected people is just the beginning. LymeAlert will also offer a smartphone app that enables users to anonymously report the locations where infected ticks are found. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re refining those ticks down to the neighborhood level,\u201d Dawicki said, \u201cand then we\u2019re overlaying that with NASA satellite data and migratory animal data to do an AI predictive algorithm of where different tick species and different pathogens are likely to spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, she\u2019s putting ticks under surveillance in hopes of leaving Lyme disease with nowhere to hide.<\/p>\n

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at hiawatha.bray@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @GlobeTechLab<\/a>.<\/p>\n