Cornell University Laura Goodman was close to finalizing a prototype of a new test that can detect any tick-borne disease. Unlike some current tests, it could provide results even before symptoms occur – and even for unknown diseases. That’s important, because ticks around the world can potentially transmit hundreds of disease agents, some of them not yet known, and they account for at least two-thirds of vector-borne disease in the U.S. When comparing confirmed diagnoses with insurance claims, it is estimated that there are 10 times more people infected than what available diagnostics show, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But in April, Goodman, Ph.D. ’07, an assistant professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health and in the Baker Institute for Animal Health in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), received a stop-work order. It brought to a halt the research the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) had asked her to do, via a nearly $900,000 three-year IDEA grant it awarded her in 2022.