Tick Boot Camp Episode 544: How Microbes Like Lyme May Trigger Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Decline – Dr. Brian Balin (PCOM)
Overview
This special episode of the Tick Boot Camp Podcast was recorded live at the 2nd Annual Alzheimer’s Pathobiome Initiative (AlzPI) and PCOM Symposium in collaboration with Pathobiome Perspectives. Hosted by Ali Moresco in partnership with Nikki Schultek, Executive Director of AlzPI, the conversation brings the Tick Boot Camp mission of exploring infection-associated chronic illness (IACI), like Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases, to the global Alzheimer’s and neuroimmunology research community.
Tick Boot Camp co-founders Matt Sabatello and Rich Johannesen partnered with Ali and Nikki to highlight scientists whose work connects tick-borne illness, microbes, and cognitive decline. This episode features Dr. Brian J. Balin, an internationally recognized neuroscientist whose research has redefined the role of infection in contributing to Alzheimer’s disease.
Guest
- Brian J. Balin, PhD
- Professor of Neuroscience and Neuropathology
- Director, Center for Chronic Disorders of Aging
- Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM)
Dr. Balin directs the Center for Chronic Disorders of Aging and the Adolph and Rose Levis Foundation Laboratory for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at PCOM. With a PhD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania, he has devoted nearly three decades to understanding how chronic infection and inflammation trigger neurodegeneration.
His pioneering discovery that the respiratory bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae infects brain tissue helped establish the Pathogen Hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease. His continuing work explores how tick-borne microbes — including Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Bartonella, and Babesia — interact with other pathogens to drive neuroinflammation and cognitive decline.
Key Discussion Points
- How infections such as Chlamydia pneumoniae, Borrelia burgdorferi, Bartonella, and Babesia were detected in Alzheimer’s brain tissue.
- Evidence that microbes can enter the brain via the olfactory pathway or blood-brain barrier, initiating chronic inflammation, amyloid plaque formation, and tau tangle pathology.
- Findings from Dr. Balin’s collaboration with Galaxy Diagnostics and advocate Nicole Bell, revealing polymicrobial infection and even Babesia otocoli — a strain previously believed to infect only deer — in human brain tissue.
- The use of animal models and 3D human brain organoids to study infection-driven neurodegeneration.
- Why identifying infection as part of the exposome (environmental insults over a lifetime) is key to developing precision diagnostics and treatments.
- Future directions: immune-modulating drugs, antimicrobials, and emerging phage therapy.
“Infection is part of the exposome — an environmental insult that shapes our health over a lifetime. Recognizing that is key to truly understanding and preventing Alzheimer’s disease.” — Dr. Brian J. Balin
Why It Matters
Dr. Balin’s research bridges the worlds of neurology and infectious disease, offering a framework that could revolutionize how Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions are diagnosed and treated. By recognizing that microbes — including those transmitted by ticks — can initiate neuroinflammation and cognitive decline, his work provides hope for millions living with infection-associated chronic illness.
About the Event
The interview took place at the 2nd Annual Alzheimer’s Pathobiome Initiative (AlzPI) and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) Symposium, October 3, 2025, Ohio University in Dublin, Ohio. The Symposium brought together more than 20 experts exploring how microbes, the microbiome, and the host immune response contribute to neurological and psychiatric diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and PANS/PANDAS.
Tick Boot Camp partnered with Ali Moresco and Nikki Schultek to document and share the voices of scientists advancing research on infection-associated chronic illness (IACI). This episode is part of a special series showcasing how pathobiome and microbiome science is changing our understanding of chronic Lyme and neurodegenerative disease.
Learn More
- Learn about the Alzheimer’s Pathobiome Initiative (AlzPI) at AlzPI.org.
- For Dr. Balin’s publications and ongoing research, visit the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) website.
- Learn more about the Alzheimer’s Pathobiome Initiative (AlzPI)
- Listen to Tick Boot Camp Podcast episodes, including Episode 406: Pathobiome – An Interview with Nikki Schultek and Episode 101: The Young Gun – An Interview with Alex (Ali) Moresco discussed in this interview.