Bay Area Lyme Foundation Raises $900,000 at LymeAid 2026, Presenting Inaugural Neil L. Spector, MD, Legacy Award and $300,000 in Emerging Leader Grants

Dana Carvey Emceed; Chris Isaak Performed at Annual Gala Advancing Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Research

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., May 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bay Area Lyme Foundation, the nation's leading public charity funder of Lyme disease research, raised $900,000 at LymeAid 2026, its annual benefit gala, over the Memorial Day weekend. The evening brought together leading scientists and clinicians, patients, and supporters united by a shared conviction: Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections should not be hard to diagnose, hard to treat, or easy to dismiss, and the science to change that is within reach.

Emmy Award-winning comedian Dana Carvey served as Master of Ceremonies. “This was my third time hosting LymeAid, and let me tell you, this community has more determination than my Church Lady character at a bake sale,” said Carvey.

Platinum-selling, GRAMMY-nominated singer Chris Isaak and his band Silvertone closed the evening in concert.

“Saturday night, LymeAid 2026 attendees came together in support of patients and to advance the research producing better diagnostics, new treatment approaches, and long overdue answers for patients with Lyme and other tick-borne diseases," said David Walsey, Executive Director of Bay Area Lyme Foundation. "Bay Area Lyme exists to fund exactly that work, because this is a solvable problem and there are too many patients still searching for answers, losing years to inadequate diagnostics and treatment options.”

Inaugural Neil L. Spector, MD, Legacy Award
The centerpiece of the evening was the inaugural presentation of the Neil L. Spector, MD, Legacy Award for Transformational Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Research, Bay Area Lyme Foundation's highest scientific honor, recognizing bold, rigorous, translational research that moves patients closer to answers.

The award was presented by Denise Spector, PhD, MPH, ARNP, retired oncology nurse practitioner and integrative medicine clinician, and Neil's wife. Dr. Spector delivered remarks titled 'Glimmers of Hope: From Research to Policy and Partnerships,' sharing insights on translating Lyme research into policy and patient impact.

Dr. Neil Spector was one of the country's leading oncologists, a researcher at Duke University and a Lyme disease patient. For years dismissed and misdiagnosed, by the time his disease was finally diagnosed it had damaged his heart beyond repair, requiring a heart transplant in 2009. Rather than step back, he stepped in, redirecting his research to apply precision oncology techniques to Lyme disease. He passed away in 2020. Bay Area Lyme Foundation has committed more than $2 million to continue that work.

The inaugural award was presented to Timothy Haystead, PhD, of Duke University, whose work continues and extends Dr. Spector's innovative research.

"Neil would be so proud to see his colleagues and collaborators continuing to move this research forward," said Dr. Denise Spector. "In many ways, his beacon of light and clear vision for improving the lives of those affected by tick-borne disease lives on through Dr. Haystead, his collaborators, and the Bay Area Lyme Foundation. They are all equally committed to making that vision possible. My heart is filled with gratitude for their dedication and support of this research."  

Patient Perspective
Singer-songwriter and Lyme disease advocate Jesse Ruben shared his journey from a 2013 diagnosis through treatment to remission in 2016. Ruben has spoken and performed at Lyme disease events across the US and Europe, run the New York City Marathon three times in support of Lyme disease research, and is a co-founder of Generation Lyme. His story reflected what this community exists to change: patients should not have to search this hard for answers.

$300,000 in Emerging Leader Awards
Research Grant Director and Science Committee member Katariina Tuovinen, MS, MBA, MA presented the 2026 Emerging Leader Awards, totaling $300,000 across two grants:

Poulami Chatterjee, PhD, staff scientist at Stanford University's Department of Chemistry and Sarafan ChEM-H Institute, received $150,000 for research into how Borrelia burgdorferi hijacks host lipids to evade the immune system and potentially persist in the body. The Lyme bacterium cannot produce many of the nutrients it needs and instead steals them from its host; Dr. Chatterjee's work could unlock treatment approaches targeting the bacterium's metabolic dependencies.

Peter Hyson, MD, infectious disease specialist at the University of Vermont Medical Center and faculty at UVM's Larner College of Medicine, received $150,000 for research into babesiosis, a tick-borne blood infection caused by Babesia parasites. Dr. Hyson has identified a promising new class of compounds against Babesia and is working to confirm their drug target to advance new therapies. This grant was made possible by an anonymous donor dedicated to supporting investigations into tick-borne diseases beyond Lyme.

Since launching the Emerging Leader Award program, Bay Area Lyme Foundation has awarded $3 million across 24 recipients, seeding a pipeline of researchers reshaping the field.

Keynote: Diagnostics, Biobank, and Clinical Trials
Keynote speaker Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UCSF and a member of Bay Area Lyme Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board, presented on three initiatives supported by the Foundation: an advanced diagnostic assay, Lyme Disease Biobank, and the UCSF Clinical Trials Center. Dr. Chiu's approach to diagnosis is fundamentally different: rather than testing for one pathogen at a time, his platform sequences everything in a patient's sample and leverages the data to identify what is present. Lyme Disease Biobank has been integral to advancing this work and the broader field, providing well-characterized patient samples that are enabling a new generation of diagnostics research, fueling peer-reviewed publications, and supporting research projects across institutions nationwide. Dr. Chiu's team is also currently enrolling patients in a trial testing a non-invasive brain stimulation approach combined with cognitive training to address Lyme-related cognitive impairment. Bay Area Lyme has funded his work since 2013.

"Bay Area Lyme Foundation has been a remarkable partner in advancing Lyme disease research, willing to support science before its value was widely recognized and build the infrastructure that makes discovery possible," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UCSF. "Bay Area Lyme is a leader in accelerating this field, and Lyme Disease Biobank is a clear example of why — without the samples, associated clinical data, and the sustained investment this community has provided over more than a decade — the research we presented tonight would not exist."

Fund-A-Need: A Lyme-Specific Treatment, Built From the Ground Up
This year's Fund-A-Need supported the work of Girija Goyal, PhD, at Harvard's Wyss Institute, who has developed a groundbreaking lymphoid organ-on-a-chip platform that recreates key aspects of the human immune system on a tiny chip, using patients' own immune cells rather than traditional animal models. Using this platform, Dr. Goyal has identified one of the ways Lyme bacteria appear to evade the immune system. Her team, working with samples from patients with persistent/chronic Lyme disease from Lyme Disease Biobank, is finding measurable biological differences between patients who recover and those who remain ill, opening the door to more targeted treatment approaches.

Funds raised through the Fund-A-Need will support Dr. Goyal's team in identifying a new therapeutic approach tested in human immune cells on the chip, with the goal of developing a treatment that can safely restore immune function against Lyme.

Bay Area Lyme Foundation Science Committee members Charlotte Mao, MD, MPH and Liz Horn, PhD, MBI, Principal Investigator of Lyme Disease Biobank attended LymeAid. Several other researchers attended the event including Bay Area Lyme Foundation Scientific Advisory Board members, Janet Foley, DVM, PhD of UC Davis, Linden Hu, MD of Tufts University, Monica Embers, PhD of Tulane University, William Robinson, MD, PhD of Stanford University, Christine Greene, MD, Sunjya Schweig, MD, and SAB member emeritus John Aucott, MD of Johns Hopkins University. 2025 ELA grant award winner Chao Wang, PhD of Arizona State University and 2024 ELA grant award winner Trever Smith, PhD of Tufts University also attended.

LymeAid 2026 hosts included Nancy and Rob Chimsky, Linda Giampa, Lucy Kuchan, Kathleen O'Rourke, Julia Shaw, Kirsten Stein, Jennifer Walsey, and Laure Woods.

The evening’s benefactors included LaureL Foundation, the Mair family, Julia Shaw, Kathleen O’Rourke and Jack Sheridan, Kirsten and Josh Stein, and Taube Philanthropies.

Premier sponsors were Pfizer, IGeneX, Whittier Trust, and Aaron Henry. Sponsors included Tarsus, Sixty Degrees Pharma, Soleo Health, Strong Bridge Advisers, Ticknology, Gordon Medical, Deerfield Ranch Winery, LymeLight Foundation, Wilkes Bashford, Ravel Health, Tonix Pharmaceuticals, Neely Family Vineyards, TellMed Strategies, TickKey, Hensley Event Resources, McCalls Catering and Events, SoundProof, The Stanford Park Hotel, and Thor Audio Solutions.

"Bay Area Lyme Foundation extends its gratitude to the sponsors, donors, and supporters whose generosity made LymeAid 2026 possible, and to Linda Giampa, who graciously hosted the evening at her home and whose leadership as Executive Director for over a decade helped build the foundation that made this evening the success it was," said Walsey.

Bay Area Lyme Foundation has funded over $31 million in Lyme disease research, fueling 75 peer-reviewed publications and collaborating with more than 58 institutions nationwide. Its Lyme Disease Biobank — with blood, urine, and tissue samples from 1250+ enrolled participants, has distributed 25,500+ samples across 125+ approved research projects, fueling the research engine for Lyme disease. The Foundation's endowment ensures 100 percent of every donor contribution goes directly to research and programs.

Bay Area Lyme Ventures Expands Portfolio
Bay Area Lyme Ventures, launched in 2025 to move promising discoveries from the lab into patient hands, announced an expanded 2026 portfolio with a new investment in Galaxy Diagnostics, a leader in advanced testing for tick-borne infections. Existing portfolio companies include Aces Diagnostics, developer of the LymeSeek blood test, and LymeAlert, creator of an at-home tick testing solution.

About Bay Area Lyme Foundation
Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a national organization committed to making Lyme disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure, is the leading public charity sponsor of innovative Lyme disease research in the US. A 501c3 organization based in Silicon Valley, Bay Area Lyme Foundation collaborates with world-class scientists and institutions to accelerate medical breakthroughs for Lyme disease. It is also dedicated to providing reliable, fact-based information so that prevention and the importance of early treatment are common knowledge. Historically, a pivotal donation from the LaureL STEM fund covered all overhead costs through 2024. In 2023, a Bay Area Lyme Endowment was formed, which allows for 100% of all donor contributions to Bay Area Lyme Foundation to go directly to research and prevention programs in perpetuity. For more information about Lyme disease or to get involved, visit www.bayarealyme.org or call us at 650-530-2439.

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