There are conflicting reports about what causes Southern-Tick Associated Rash Illness (STARI), found in the southeastern and south central United States, and how infectious it is.
Researchers with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston received a $150,000 two-year grant to study the disease and try to answer those questions.
Tao Lin, D.V.M., and Steven J. Norris, Ph.D., will try to identify organisms associated with STARI in Texas and other states within the south central United States. They will use a variety of technical approaches in an effort to identifying the organism(s) that cause STARI and design tests to diagnose patients with the disease, along with developing effective therapies to treat the disease.
Patients with STARI have a bullseye-shaped rash that is virtually identical a certain lesion found in patients with Lyme disease. But while doctors know that ticks transmit the bacterial infection Lyme disease, which is common in northeastern, north central, mid-Atlantic seaboard and Pacific coastal states, they don't yet know what causes STARI.
Lin and Norris will use DNA amplification methods, high throughput DNA sequencing and other unusual culture media and conditions techniques in their quest for answers. The Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has provided the grant to fund the research.
