Lyme disease is the most common infection in North America and highly prevalent in the Northeast region of the United States. Approximately 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year. The disease is caused by the microorganism bacteria, Borrelia, that is transmitted to humans through a tick bite. It is increasingly more difficult to cure when gone undetected and left untreated. Therefore, the goal of this project is to design and build a single-use rapid tick tester for use in humans and pets. Using the designed tick-mashing pestle paired with the lateral flow immunoassay, the test kit is able to provide a result within fifteen minutes thus allowing the patient to seek immediate treatment. The proactive nature of this device will be crucial in addressing the public health issue of Lyme disease.

Our team collaborated with Mechanical Engineering 56 on this project.