Symposium
Lyme Disease: State-of-the Science and New Frontiers
MGH Lyme Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
55 Fruit Street
Division of Infectious Diseases
Mail code GRJ504
Boston,
MA
02114
Email: supatel@mgh.harvard.edu
About The Symposium
About the Symposium
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is pleased to host a symposium entitled: Lyme disease: State-of-the Science and New Innovations, on October 26, 2023, which will be held in MGH’s Simches Research Center Auditorium. Along with this inaugural symposium, we plan to launch a new multidisciplinary clinic as well as an enhanced research initiative in Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections at MGH. This initiative also has educational goals in training physicians and other health care workers about these illnesses. This multidisciplinary clinical, research, and education program has been made possible by a most generous gift from Mr. Phillip Morse.
The symposium will also serve as a celebration of the career of Allen Steere, MD, a faculty member in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology and a Principal Investigator in the Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases at MGH. Dr. Steere has been named as the first incumbent of the Morse Endowed Chair in Medicine. Many of the speakers and session chairs got their start in Lyme disease with Dr. Steere and/or have been collaborators with him. The speakers’ presented work will be published as a Festschrift in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Program
| 8 AM | MGH Medical Grand Rounds Allen Steere, Jacob Lemieux |
| 9:30 AM | Welcome Ruanne Barnabas, Chief, Infectious Diseases Division, Massachusetts General Hospital |
| 9:45 AM | Epidemiology of Lyme disease and its co-infections Moderator – Sam Telford, Tufts Veterinary School Speaker - Paul Mead, Centers for Disease Control |
| 10:25 AM | Break |
| 10:40 AM | Borrelia burgdorferi genomics Moderator – Klemen Strle, Tufts University School of Medicine Speaker - Jacob Lemieux, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School |
| 11:20 AM | Borrelia burgdorferi pathogenetic factors Moderator – Linden Hu, Tufts University School of Medicine Speaker - John Leong, Tufts University School of Medicine |
| 12:00 | Lunch |
| 1:00 PM | Clinical features of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome Moderator – Howard Heller, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Patient case presentation – Mr. Robert Myron Ewoud Baarsma, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 1:45 PM | Host pathogenetic factors Moderator – Allen Steere, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Linda Bockenstedt, Yale University School of Medicine Speaker – Klemen Strle, Tuft University School of Medicine |
| 2:35 PM | Lessons from Mouse models Moderator – John Leong, Tufts University School of Medicine Speaker - Robert Lochhead, Medical College of Wisconsin |
| 3:25 PM | Break |
| 3:50 PM | Diagnostic tests Moderator – Kent Lewandrowski, Associate Chief for Clinical Pathology, MGH Speaker - John Branda, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School |
| 4:25 PM | Powassan encephalitis virus Moderator – David Louis, Chair, Pathology Departments, MGH and BWH Speaker - Eric Klontz, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School |
| 4:50 PM | Vaccination Moderator – Galit Alter, Senior Scientist, Moderna Speaker - Erol Fikrig, Yale University School of Medicine Speaker – Meredith Benson Finn, Moderna |
| 5:40 PM | Closing Remarks Where are we going? Andrew Luster – Chief, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, and Director, Center for Immunology and inflammatory diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. |
Application
The symposium is intended for clinicians and researchers who have been actively involved in Lyme disease now or in the past. In addition, we are very interested in attendance by post-doctoral fellows, residents, medical students or other health care workers who are currently working in this field or have an interest in it. Considerable time in the symposium will be left for discussion, and questions and comments from the attendees are encouraged.
There is no charge for attendance, but seating is limited. Therefore, application is required prior to registration. For application, please submit the information on this page, which includes telling us in several sentences about your connection with Lyme disease or other tick-borne diseases.
The deadline for application is October 2, 2023. We will review applications in the order that they are received.
Applications to attend can be submitted at https://form.jotform.com/230944853896169.