Lyme Biofilm with Dr. Eva Sapi
Lyme Biofilm with Dr. Eva Sapi » Listen
Date: May 13, 2019
Episode Description
Dr. Eva Sapi has been a trailblazer in Lyme disease research, proving that Lyme has a protective layer called a biofilm that protects itself. She and her students at New Haven University are continuing to study a recent breakthrough in which they found that liquid, whole-leaf stevia extract – not the powdered varieties that people most commonly use – have reduced the biofilm mass by about 40 percent. The goal of her research is to ultimately identify novel antibacterial agents that are effective in killing all forms of Lyme.
Guest Information
Dr. Eva Sapi received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Eotvos Lorand, Budapest, Hungary, and Postdoctoral training at Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Therapeutic Radiology. She is a Professor at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate level biology courses and carries out the University’s Lyme Disease Research Program with her students. To date, over 90 graduate students have received training in Lyme Disease related research.
Dr. Sapi is on the front lines of searching for a cure for a disease that the Centers for Disease Control says is the fastest-growing vector-borne disease in the United States. She was the first to discover breakthrough research on the presence of Borrelia biofilm in human infected skin tissue, a finding that was published in the “European Journal of Microbiology & Immunology,” an international peer-reviewed online journal, representing one of her 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers on Lyme disease. Dr. Sapi’s current research, with James Goldman, a Columbia University professor of pathology and cell biology, centers on a case in which a woman received 16 years of antibiotic therapy and still died from Lyme disease. Their findings – presented in International conferences and the manuscript under preparation – supported her earlier discoveries that Borrelia can form biofilm, a protective layer around itself, making it extremely resistant to antibiotics.
Dr. Sapi and her students are continuing to study a recent breakthrough in which they found that liquid, whole-leaf stevia extract – not the powdered varieties that people most commonly use – have reduced the biofilm mass by about 40 percent. The goal of her research is to ultimately identify novel antibacterial agents that are effective in killing all forms of Borrelia.
Recognized by Massachusetts General/Harvard Medical School for her Lyme Disease research, Dr. Sapi was named a research trailblazer by LymeDisease.org in 2018. She’s shared her findings at conferences around the country and organized seven Lyme Disease Symposiums at the University of New Haven, which regularly draws 200 participants, and she has received the Lyme Connection of Ridgefield’s Courage Award.
Dr. Sapi’s initial research focused on breast and ovarian cancer. She shifted her focus to finding a better treatment for Lyme Disease after contracting the disease herself.
