July 2014, IN THIS ISSUE                                                            Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Find us on Pinterest
Executive Director's Letter
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LRA-Funded Researchers Report Progress
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Meet Charles Chiu
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2014 Gala Wrap-Up 
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More Than One Disease in a Single Bite
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Lone Star Dangers On Long Island
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LRA Achieves Gold Level Status  
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Our StarLight Honoree Honors LRA
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LRA Video Wins

Telly Award


Congrats to Mary Shanahan for winning a Bronze Telly Award for her video "The Faces of Lyme." The six-minute video, done in collaboration with LRA, was shown at the 2014 Gala. If you missed it, you can see it here.

 

Calling All Golfers!

 

We are gearing up for our third annual LRA Golf Tournament to be held at the Stanwich Club, Greenwich, Thurs., Oct. 9. We are looking for players, foursomes, sponsors, and of course volunteers. We hope
you'll join us.


Click here for more information.



  Race Against Lyme This Fall

 

Join us for our first Race Against Lyme 5K Walk/Run in Loudonville, NY (near Albany) on Saturday, Oct. 4. The event will be held at The Crossings of Colonie park.

For details, click here

Photos from
Stamford Race here.

LRA counts on your support for our research mission. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation. Please give as generously as you can.
Bring LRA to 
Your Workplace!



Recently, LRA presented our talk "What You Need to Know About Lyme Disease" to the New York staff of Rolex and the Stamford, CT staff of GE Treasury. We always have lively and spirited discussion and answer loads of questions about tick-borne disease. Add your company or PTA group to the list of organizations benefiting from our free "Lunch 'N Learn" daytime or evening seminar program.

 For more information, contact Peter Wild.

To schedule a seminar, click here.
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Executive Director's Letter

It's been a little more than a month since LRA and the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance announced our joint intention to merge. As we await approval from state regulatory agencies, we continue to work together with the goal of becoming one organization with one mission under a new name that will reflect the important work of both our groups.

In making this move, both LRA and TBDA are addressing what many of you have been saying for years: "Why are there so many different Lyme organizations?" and "Which one should I support?". By combining two leading organizations with a common vision and complementary strengths we aspire to create an organization with the capability to create the awareness, research funding and government participation that are needed to put an end to tick-borne diseases.

 
Our organizations have much in common. By combining LRA's research expertise with TBDA's focus on awareness, and by supporting efforts like a national Lyme patient bio-repository, we can achieve synergy and economies of scale that would take longer to achieve independently.

As a consolidated entity, we expect to speak with a single, more powerful voice, and to channel a larger proportion of our donors' dollars into finding a reliable test and a cure.


This is an exciting time for both of our organizations-but especially for all those who suffer from Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. We will be sure to keep you updated as the merger process evolves.   

    

    Peter Wild

 

  

LRA-Funded Researchers Report Progress
 
We're delighted to report that so far, 2014 has been a year of unprecedented progress for the scientists supported by LRA's research grants program.

LRA grantee Kim Lewis, Ph.D., distinguished professor and Director, Antimicrobial Discovery Center, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, is focused on researching "persisters," cells that manage to survive antibiotic assault. Unlike some cells that are literally resistant and can live and replicate normally in the presence of a drug, mysterious persister cells neither die nor grow in the presence of an antibiotic. Rather, they exist in a dormant state that allows them to survive...read more about Kim Lewis, plus Ying Zhang, M.D., Ph.D and Valeria Culotta, Ph.D. here.

Meet Charles Chiu, LRA's Newest Scientific Advisory Board Member

LRA is proud to announce that Charles Chiu, M.D., Ph.D. assistant professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, has joined our Scientific Advisory Board.
2014 Gala Wrap-Up

We're still smiling about our very successful 2014 "Time for Lyme" Gala. We raised $1,070,000, making it our highest grossing event ever. Congrats to all and special thanks to Julia Comeau, Bryanna Kallman and Ally Hilfiger-our fantastic Event Chairs!


In The News
 
More Than One Disease in a Single Bite  

 

If you get bitten by a black-legged tick, you have a higher-than-expected chance of being exposed to at least two pathogens at the same time.
Read more.

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Lone Star Dangers On Long Island

If you are headed to Long Island this summer, watch out for the Lone Star tick. Distinguished by a single white dot or lone star on the backs of female Lone Star ticks, they migrated from the southeastern U.S. and first appeared in Montauk in the 1970s, then Fire Island in 1988, and have since moved into populated Suffolk County commnities.

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LRA Achieves Gold Level Status with GuideStar

LRA has received the coveted GuideStar Gold Level" designation, which means we have successfully demonstrated our deep commitment to financial accountability and administrative transparency. In order to be awarded the Gold Level logo by GuideStar, the premier source of nonprofit information, LRA is committed to full disclosure of the organizations financial information, said Peter Wild, LRA's executive director. "We want our donors to feel confident that their funds are being used to support the work of cutting-edge Lyme disease researchers who are accelerating progress in the fight against Lyme."

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Our StarLight Honoree Honors LRA

 
Our 2014 StarLight Award honoree, Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky, was named the recipient of the WNBA's Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award for her oustanding work for Lyme disease awareness and other causes. LRA was honored to be the recipient of a $10,000 donation given by the WNBA on behalf of Elena.

At the end of June, the Chicago Sky announced Elena would be sidelined indefinitely due to a recurrence of Lyme disease. We send her our sincere wishes for a speedy recovery.
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