Mij
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
October 21, 2026 | News, Research, UToday, Alumni, Medicine and Life Sciences
Dr. Mark Wooten grew up raising cattle in rural Arkansas, wandered into bacteriology in college, and made a bet early in his career that Lyme disease was going to become a major public health problem.
Twenty-five years later, working out of The University of Toledo, he’s still collecting on that bet.
Dr. Mark Wooten, a professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, has received a five-year, $3.7 million award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to help him continue developing an unconventional Lyme disease vaccine.
Wooten, a professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, has received a five-year, $3.7 million award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will help him continue developing an unconventional Lyme disease vaccine built around something he noticed while watching bacteria move inside living tissue under a microscope.
There is currently no Lyme disease vaccine available in the United States. The last one, LYMErix, was pulled from the market in 2002. Meanwhile, the CDC estimates approximately 476,000 people may be diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the United States, and the tick populations that carry it have been steadily expanding their range, including into Ohio.
Dr. Mark Wooten grew up raising cattle in rural Arkansas, wandered into bacteriology in college, and made a bet early in his career that Lyme disease was going to become a major public health problem.
Twenty-five years later, working out of The University of Toledo, he’s still collecting on that bet.
Dr. Mark Wooten, a professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, has received a five-year, $3.7 million award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to help him continue developing an unconventional Lyme disease vaccine.
Wooten, a professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, has received a five-year, $3.7 million award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will help him continue developing an unconventional Lyme disease vaccine built around something he noticed while watching bacteria move inside living tissue under a microscope.
There is currently no Lyme disease vaccine available in the United States. The last one, LYMErix, was pulled from the market in 2002. Meanwhile, the CDC estimates approximately 476,000 people may be diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the United States, and the tick populations that carry it have been steadily expanding their range, including into Ohio.