Driven by passion, fueled by philanthropy. That is the mantra by which the G. Magnotta Research Lab at the University of Guelph operates. The interdisciplinary research team shares a common goal - combating Lyme disease and other related illnesses.
Dr. Melanie Wills
Under lab director Dr. Melanie Wills of the College of Biological Science, the G. Magnotta Research Lab works at the intersection of microbiology and human disease, tackling significant challenges in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of Lyme disease.
"There is a complexity to Lyme disease," Wills says. "We know that it is a One Health issue."
A personal connection to Lyme disease
Since its inception in 2017, the lab has been supported by more than $2.6 million from the G. Magnotta Foundation. Based in Vaughan, Ont., it is Canada's only non-profit organization focused on learning more about Lyme disease through scientific investigation.
"This cause is deeply personal to me," says Rossana Magnotta, founder and president of the G. Magnotta Foundation. "I lost my husband to the devastating effects of Lyme disease. If our health care system had been better prepared to recognize and treat it sooner, Gabe might still be here today. He fought courageously for seven years, but it took five-and-a-half painful years just to get a diagnosis. His needless suffering drives my relentless fight for change."
Building on work that began more than seven years ago, the foundation is continuing its commitment to U of G with $2 million over the next two years.
"This funding is a massive accelerant for the outcomes that we've already achieved, to further mobilize them," Wills says. "This sets us on a trajectory to take a lot of foundational knowledge, build on it, move it toward the clinic and test some of the hypotheses we have developed. For our lab, that means keeping all these facets not only alive but growing.
"It is an incredible act of generosity and an incredible act of hope on the part of the foundation to see a future that is better than the present that we live in."
Developing technology to improve Lyme disease patient care
Research at the G. Magnotta Research Lab is taking place in various aspects of the disease simultaneously, Wills explains. The focus is split three ways, including cell biology of the pathogen itself, host-pathogen interaction, and detection technologies. Essentially, Wills and her team are trying to understand the disease, what it does and how it does it, while also developing tools that will improve diagnosis of Lyme and make testing for it more accessible.
"The technology that would enable that is something we're working on today," Wills says, with a hypothesis that asks, "How is our work going to translate, down the line, to patient care?"
All the while, the risk of Lyme disease is growing.
"Many Canadians have only just begun to realize the serious threat posed by tick-borne diseases," Magnotta says. "But the truth is, the problem has been growing for some time. Areas that were once thought to be safe are now endemic, and the spread is escalating."
What is Lyme disease and how does it infect the body?
Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, which spreads through the bite of infected ticks. Spring and fall are peak seasons when adult ticks are questing for blood and looking for a host to latch onto, to perpetuate their life cycle. "Ticks can be active when the temperature is above 4 degrees Celsius. Milder winters not only promote tick survival, but also extend the tick encounter season," Wills says. "We have seen this trend with participants in our ongoing tick bite study."
You don't get it until you get it - that is the saying among patients, and some researchers studying Lyme because it is such a unique disease. Many traditional approaches to infectious diseases do not necessarily translate well to combating Lyme. The bacteria are stealthy; when they infect someone, there is a relatively low pathogen burden that can do a lot of damage systemically. Because it starts out in the skin when you have a tick bite, it disseminates through the body. It can colonize tissues of all kinds, creating symptoms that one might not automatically assume are Lyme disease. And tests do not perform well early in the disease, Wills adds.
"If you're not in the thick of this, you don't believe that this could be happening," Wills says. "You trust that if you have an infectious disease, you have an antidote to it."
