Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong, Ph.D.

Research

My lab is developing an automated robotic system—powered by artificial intelligence—to identify novel therapeutics for Lyme disease. Although Lyme disease often responds to treatment with one of a handful of standard antibiotics, this is not always the case, and sometimes a cocktail of antibiotics is required despite undesired side effects. In our lab, we search for Lyme disease treatments by understanding the biology of the causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi. We are designing a fully automated robotic laboratory system that combines computational, pharmacological, and microbiological methods for efficiently testing new medications. My group will also use this system to develop novel therapeutics derived from a human protein that reduces the risk of Lyme disease and to identify genes that control how B. burgdorferi responds to these treatments. The work will streamline the development and analysis of new therapeutics and provide a system that even small labs can use to accelerate and simplify the discovery of drugs to treat a variety of diseases.