BIG NEWS! Test the Tick: Lyme Alert Has Your Answer in 30 Minutes
This week on Lyme Time: Ali sits down with Erin Dawicki, CEO and co-founder of Lyme Alert, a TIME Best Inventions 2026 winner. Erin is a pediatric clinician turned MIT Sloan Fellow, and her company built the first at-home tick test.
- Why she built it: After nearly 20 years in pediatrics, she watched Lyme arthritis go from rare to common, often because families were told to “wait for a bullseye” instead of getting early answers.
- How it works: Drop the tick in the canister, add the solution, snap the lid, and twist about 10 times. A positive can show in about 5 minutes, and a negative needs the full 30.
- Built for everyone: An app reads the test strip with your phone’s camera, so there’s no guessing at faint lines, and it connects you to telehealth if you need a provider.
- The numbers: 99% sensitive in the lab. In an ongoing wild-caught tick study, about 93% accuracy, two false positives, and no false negatives so far.
- Know the limits: A positive tick means you may have been exposed, not that it transmitted. The test covers Borrelia only for now, and co-infection tests are planned for next summer.
- Access: $49.99 at limealert.com, with larger-scale availability expected from January 2027. Her goal is bringing the price down and getting kits to schools, camps, and underserved communities.
- Citizen science: Lyme Alert is collecting ticks from all 50 states, free of charge, to map where pathogens are spreading. Send ticks from your pets, not the one that bit you.
- Her message: Lyme has been found in all 50 states. Advocate for yourself, ask for testing, and don’t take no for an answer.
🎧 Listen to the full episode now.
