Project Lyme was founded on a simple but urgent premise: the people living with Lyme disease — patients, caregivers, and families — deserve better. Better diagnostics. Better treatments. Better information. A healthcare system that takes their experience seriously. And a scientific community with the resources to actually solve this problem.
Our Mission Statement
The Problem We Exist to Solve
Lyme disease affects approximately 476,000 Americans each year — more than breast cancer and HIV/AIDS combined. Yet it receives a fraction of the research funding. Patients often wait more than two years for an accurate diagnosis. A significant portion develop persistent symptoms that current medicine cannot reliably treat. And the scientific and policy infrastructure around the disease has lagged far behind its human burden.
This is not a scientific inevitability. It is a resource problem, a policy problem, and — at its heart — a prioritization problem. Project Lyme exists to change that prioritization.
Our Theory of Change
We believe that through four coordinated strategies, we can meaningfully accelerate progress:
- Research Advancement: Funding the science that leads to better diagnostics, more effective treatments, and eventual prevention
- Education & Awareness: Replacing the misinformation that delays diagnosis and misleads patients with accurate, evidence-based resources
- Community Advocacy: Amplifying the voices of patients and caregivers in the policy arena — ensuring that the people most affected have a seat at the table
- Collaboration: Building the partnerships and networks that allow progress to happen faster than any single organization could achieve alone
Why Now?
Several trends are converging to create an extraordinary opportunity for progress. The scientific tools available to Lyme researchers — genomics, proteomics, advanced imaging — are more powerful than ever. Multiple vaccine candidates are in clinical trials. The patient and caregiver community is more organized and vocal than at any point in the disease's history. Policy attention is growing. The foundation is in place for a breakthrough decade.
Project Lyme intends to be a catalyst for that breakthrough — by funding the right research, communicating it effectively, and ensuring that patients don't wait another decade for answers.