Submitted by the MVCAC VVBD Committee
CA Schmitt. Smithsonian Magazine July 2026.
The test kit, which remains effective for up to 12 months, is simple to use. After carefully removing the tick with either tweezers or a tick-removal tool, you place it into the kit’s “Tick Crusher.” The grinder pulverizes the tick’s chitinous exterior, exposing the internal contents where the Borrelia burgdorferi is located. A patent-pending buffer solution readies the sample for testing. The user then inserts a test strip into a slot in the grinder. The strip’s chemically treated nitrocellulose paper functions as an immunochromatographic assay that can detect the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi.
“It’s similar to a pregnancy test or a Covid test, and takes about 15 minutes,” says Dawicki. Two lines indicates a positive result; one line is negative. Along with the test kit, Dawicki and team are also rolling out an app that will make the test results easily accessible to everyone—even those who may be neurodivergent or have vision difficulties that could make reading the test results challenging. “You take a picture of the test strip, and the app will read and interpret the test strip for you,” says Dawicki. “We also give people the option of choosing from a list of telehealth providers, so they can connect directly to a health care provider if they don’t have access to their own.”
Note: I could not find a citation to the original research that developed the test kit or its evaluation.