Researchers at MIT are thinking outside the box with a new long Covid, chronic Lyme disease study. Dr. Mikki Tal is heading the MIT MAESTRO research study1 which is looking into potential sex differences, predictive diagnostics and immunological, neurological and other mechanisms of chronic illness.
Her team is also investigating immune-pathogen interactions, and the connection between these infections and disorders that often accompany them such as mast cell activation. They’ll also be looking at the impact of toxin exposure, connective tissue damage and gynecological implications of chronic illness. These are all issues that will resonate with patients with long Covid and chronic Lyme disease.
It’s very encouraging to see researchers with an understanding of Lyme disease that reflects the reality that many patients experience when dealing with Lyme disease. Alison Guy speaks with Dr. Tal for the MIT Technology Review.2
“I realized that there’s this public health debacle around Lyme, and it’s, for lack of a better word, obscene,” Tal says. Chronic Lyme patients skew female, and for decades, clinicians have dismissed their symptoms as signs of mental illness. The medical establishment has “done nothing but call them crazy,” Tal says, “instead of admitting that they just don’t understand what’s going on.”
By using a wide array of data collection approaches, researchers will be able to look at many of the impacts these diseases have and how they interact in different individuals. Thank you Dr. Tal and your team at MIT for conducting this very important research!
