Massachusetts General Hospital

BiographyDr. Steere is a medical researcher and physician who is internationally recognized for his studies of Lyme disease. Dr. Steeres training was at Columbia University in New York. In 1976, while a post-doctoral fellow at Yale, he and his colleagues described Lyme arthritis. During his faculty period at Yale and subsequently at Tufts, he detailed the clinical features of Lyme disease, identified the spirochetal etiology of the infection in human patients, developed serologic, culture and PCR tests for diagnosis, conducted antibiotic trials, and was principal investigator of the SmithKline Beecham Phase III Lyme disease vaccine trial. Dr. Steere currently serves as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of Translational Research in Rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he studies Lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Study provides greater understanding of Lyme disease-causing bacteria

A new study finds that a particular strain of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease may be more virulent, leading to increased inflammation in joints that persists after antibiotic treatment.

Deer tick bacteria DNA in joint fluid not reliable marker of active lyme arthritis

New research shows that PCR testing for Borrelia burgdorferi DNA—the spirochetal bacteria transmitted by deer ticks—in joint fluid may confirm the diagnosis of Lyme arthritis, but is not a reliable indicator for active joint infection in patients whose arthritis persists.