PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a national nonprofit and leading sponsor of tick-borne disease research, today reflected on concrete progress in 2025 that demonstrates the maturation of more than a decade of investment in diagnostics, therapeutics, and research infrastructure for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. As Bay Area Lyme Foundation-supported programs advance towards being available for clinicians and patients, the organization announced David A. Walsey, JD, LLM, as Executive Director. He has extensive experience offering strategic guidance to life sciences companies and a personal connection to Lyme disease that will help guide the foundation’s next phase of scientific translation and organizational growth.

In 2025, Bay Area Lyme Foundation reached an important inflection point as new diagnostic tests enabled by the foundation’s Lyme Disease Biobank secured FDA clearance. These new tests highlight the potential to move from discovery-stage research toward tools that can meaningfully improve patient care. The organization also launched Bay Area Lyme Ventures, an investment arm designed to help promising diagnostics and therapeutics move more efficiently from the laboratory into real-world use, while also creating the opportunity for returns to support future Bay Area Lyme Foundation research. This progress underscores the importance of the more than $30 million in research Bay Area Lyme Foundation has invested at leading academic and medical institutions such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Tulane, and Duke. Research supported by the foundation has produced over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications and sustained collaboration across top research centers nationwide.

“From the beginning, Bay Area Lyme Foundation focused on funding rigorous science where it could make the greatest difference for patients,” said Linda Giampa, founding Executive Director of Bay Area Lyme Foundation and current Board member. “By investing early in infrastructure like Lyme Disease Biobank and supporting leading researchers, Bay Area Lyme Foundation helped create the conditions for the progress we are now seeing translate toward patient impact.”

Much of this progress has been made possible by the infrastructure Bay Area Lyme Foundation built to strengthen the field, most notably Lyme Disease Biobank, which provides researchers with access to well-characterized patient samples. 2026 will mark 10 years since Biobank provided its first samples. With over 1,250 participants enrolled, it has supported 125 approved academic and industry projects with the distribution of more than 25,000 samples to researchers. In 2025, Bay Area Lyme Foundation published a major study in Frontiers in Medicine, made possible by 10 years of Lyme Disease Biobank’s sample collection, revealing persistent gaps in follow-up care for early Lyme disease, with patients experiencing ongoing symptoms they attributed to Lyme disease despite antibiotic treatment. This type of analysis is possible because of Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s sustained investment to build and maintain Lyme Disease Biobank, providing the required well-characterized samples and standardized data to qualified academic and industry researchers.

Walsey intends to close these gaps in patient care, and his decision to join Bay Area Lyme Foundation is deeply personal as tick-borne disease has affected his family for almost a decade. He brings more than 25 years of experience leading communications, strategy, and investor relations for public biotechnology companies, with a career focused on translating complex science for clinicians, investors, patients and other stakeholders. His professional background and lived experience align with Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s emphasis on ensuring that credible science reaches patients and informs real-world decision-making.

“One of my children tested positive for tick-borne disease, including Lyme disease, Bartonella, Babesia, and experienced severe physical, neurological, and psychological symptoms. Like many families, we faced delayed diagnosis, trial-and-error treatment, stigma, and significant financial burden, largely because insurance often does not recognize or cover these chronic illnesses,” said Walsey. “Our personal experience makes it clear that patients are not failing treatment. The system is failing patients. We need better diagnostics, clearer understanding of Lyme and co-infections, and treatments grounded in strong science rather than guesswork.”

Alongside diagnostics, Bay Area Lyme Foundation-funded therapeutic research continues to generate insights into persistent infection and co-infections, informing more targeted and effective treatment strategies. With diagnostics advancing toward real-world use and research infrastructure firmly in place and the acknowledgment of chronic Lyme by the Department of Health and Human Services, 2025 marked a shift in what is now possible in tick-borne disease research. Bay Area Lyme Foundation will continue to focus on bridging research, validation, and implementation for diagnostics and therapeutics to ensure that scientific progress translates into better outcomes for patients. As scientific tools improve and research advances toward clinical application, the opportunity to accelerate progress for patients has rarely been greater.

“Bay Area Lyme Foundation has always focused on science that can truly change patient outcomes,” said Giampa. “What’s different now is that the field is ready to translate that science into real impact. David’s experience reinforces why this moment matters and furthers Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s mission to make Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections easier to diagnose and simpler to cure.”

Individuals and organizations interested in supporting research to improve diagnosis and treatment for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases are encouraged to learn more at www.bayarealyme.org.

About Lyme disease
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne infection in the U.S. and can cause debilitating long-term symptoms. Transmitted by the bite of an infected tick, and potentially from mother to unborn baby, Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed, making timely treatment difficult. As a result, up to two million Americans may be living with long-term complications.

Each year, approximately 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease, far more than new cases of HIV/AIDS, West Nile virus, tuberculosis, or malaria combined. A 2022 BMJ Global Health analysis found that about 1.15 billion people worldwide have or previously had an infection with Lyme Borrelia, highlighting the widespread and growing public-health impact of this disease.

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 the 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.

Media Contact:
Tara DiMilia
Phone: 908-369-7168
Tara.DiMilia@tmstrat.com