A tiny tick, the size of a poppy seed, latches onto the skin around your ankles after your hike. You rip it off and carry on. Unbeknownst to you, bacterial spirochetes enter your bloodstream and begin to infect you. Within the week, a red rash forms around the area and the disease is running its course. This is Lyme disease.

Monica Embers, associate professor of microbiology and immunology and director of vector-borne disease research at the Tulane University National Primate Research Center, is an expert on Lyme disease. She has been researching the disease and developing a diagnostic test for over a decade.

Her science journey began in college. Initially, she wanted to pursue medicine, but she quickly fell in love with immunology when she spent two summers working in immunology research labs at the University of Iowa.

“My mentor told me that I was a data junkie and that I should go into research instead of medicine,” Embers said.

Embers has mainly focused on Lyme disease research during her nearly 22 years at Tulane. Her research in Lyme disease diagnostics was partially inspired by a diagnostic test her mentor developed, which is now the primary test for Lyme in canines.

“Throughout my career, I’ve wanted to build on [my mentor’s diagnostic test]…. because I knew that the current testing, which is 40 years old, is less than 50% sensitive, so we’re missing so many patients.”

Embers’s decades of research coalesced into a multi-antigen diagnostic “that can be used to detect infection throughout the course of the disease, instead of just in this narrow window where the current tests are accurate,” Embers said.

The most crucial time for diagnosing Lyme disease is within the first several weeks of infection, because it is the most treatable in the earliest stages.

“Lyme disease is kind of like cancer, where if you detect it early…it’s a lot more treatable,” Embers said, “[If] they’re diagnosed early, approximately 90% of patients will get better if they get [antibiotic] treatment.”

People who do not get diagnosed or treated early or effectively enough can suffer lifelong effects. The primary targets of Lyme disease are the brain, joints and heart, causing symptoms like massive fatigue, joint pain, arthritis, cardiac manifestations and cognitive impairment.

In 2022, Embers was a member of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and was designated as the chair of the Diagnostic Subcommittee. It was there that she met Tammy Crawford, who is the leader of Focus on Lyme, a foundation focused on improving prevention, diagnostics, treatment and advocacy for Lyme disease. Crawford and Embers combined their knowledge to found Aces Diagnostics, a Lyme disease testing company.

Embers is the chief research officer for Aces Diagnostics, which is developing the first Lyme disease test for “early and disseminated Lyme disease” that is over 90% accurate. According to the Aces Diagnostics website, current tests “miss 7 out of 10 Lyme disease cases during the early stages of infection, and are only 50% accurate overall.”

LymeSeek uses a combination of and requires only a small amount of blood to perform. According to Embers, the goal of the diagnostic is for it to be widely available for clinical labs.

“It would give the physicians a yes or no answer. They don’t have to interpret it. They just look at the results and it’s a

yes,” said Embers. “It really simplifies the experience for the patient and the provider.”

According to the website, LymeSeek is in the test development phase and will be ready for commercial launch by 2026.

“If this test gets to market, it’ll be a dream come true, because it will help a lot of people get treated,” Embers said, “I’ve always done this with the goal of helping Lyme disease patients either get diagnosed or get better…so stay tuned.”