New At-Home Diagnostic Promises Lyme Disease Results in Ten Minutes

The device, which opens for pre-orders today at $34.99, targets Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease. Unlike traditional blood tests that require waiting for a patient’s immune response to manifest, this kit analyzes the tick itself. According to company CEO Olivia Abrams, the tool aims to replace the current standard of sending samples to external laboratories, a process that can take weeks and often discourages consumers from seeking testing.

Initial internal testing indicates an accuracy rate exceeding 99%. To bolster these claims, the company has partnered with researchers including Dr. Monica Embers of Tulane University and Dr. Tom Mather of the University of Rhode Island for further validation studies. The technology was engineered in collaboration with Palladium Diagnostics and the medical device firm Gener8. Beyond individual diagnostics, users can anonymously upload their results to a national heat map, a crowdsourced initiative intended to track the prevalence of infected ticks across the United States. The product joins a growing portfolio for the New York-based startup, which previously gained national attention for its TiCK MiTT prevention tool.