TickReport - Laboratory of Medical Zoology

 The Laboratory of Medical Zoology (LMZ) at the University of Massachusetts is the nation's tick and mosquito testing center. Our lab has developed extremely sensitive and highly specific tests to determine which ticks are infected and which are not. Since all tick-borne diseases start with a tick bite, a TickReport analysis can be an important step in understanding the exposure risk and helping guide steps toward preventing disease. We test ticks from across the United States and three other continents (and counting).

TickReport is conducting this fundraising effort to increase our capacity and service.  This MinuteFund-raising campaign is like other crowd-funding sites, but it's run entirely by the University of Massachusetts, our parent institution, so all your contributions are tax deductible and go directly to support the LMZ. The CDC estimates the total number of Lyme disease cases to be on the order of 300,000, so our target is to get one donation for every Lyme sufferer.  We’ve already completed close to 40,000 TickReports for people just like you, and so if we can just appeal to each of our users to recruit some friends and family, we make this fundraiser viral and reach our goal of bringing people together to reduce the incidence of tick-borne disease in the US.  

How will the funds be used? 

Every dollar goes toward improving our not-for-profit tick testing service.   Our goal is to improve TickReport while at the same time making it more affordable to more people. Below is a summary of the allocation of your donations that will support our mission.

• 40% - Research

  • Develop new intervention strategies for mitigating the risk of tick-borne disease (including source reduction, tick control, and anti-tick vaccines)

• 25% - Outreach curriculum

  • Webinars, conference, and print materials for distribution to towns and agencies in support of their fight against tick-borne disease in their communities.

• 25% -Development           

  • New tests for additional pathogens and strain differentiation
  • Improved efficiencies with value added and cost reducing measures

• 10% - Angel Fund

  • Financial aid for those that seek a TickReport but are experiencing financial hardship

THANK YOU FOR YOU GENEROUS DONATION!