I think Dr. Sapi is a very important gifted scientist.
Here is one sample of her highly useful work.
The Sapi research group has recently shown that Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease bacterium, is capable of forming biofilms in Borrelia-infected human skin lesions.
Biofilm structures often contain multiple organisms in a symbiotic relationship, with the goal of providing shelter from environmental stressors such as antimicrobial agents.
[The Lyme-alone model I strongly rejected in the 90s].
Recent reports suggested Chlamydia-like organisms in ticks and Borrelia-infected human skin tissues; therefore, Chlamydia-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses were performed in Borrelia-positive BL (Lyme biofilm) tissues.
The positive PCR bands revealed that Chlamydia DNAs are indeed present in these Lyme biofilm–infected tissues.
They demonstrated the presence of Chlamydia antigen (parts of this infection) and DNA in 84% of Borrelia biofilms.
Confocal microscopy revealed that Chlamydia locates in the center of Borrelia biofilms, and together, they form a well-organized mixed pathogenic structure.
In summary, this study is the first to show Borrelia–Chlamydia mixed biofilms in infected human skin tissues, which raises the questions of whether these human pathogens have developed a symbiotic relationship for their mutual survival.
Keywords: Lyme disease, biofilm, Borrelia lymphocytoma, alginate, chlamydia, confocal microscopy
Sapi E, Gupta K, Wawrzeniak K, Gaur G, Torres J, Filush K, Melillo A, Zelger B. Borrelia and Chlamydia Can Form Mixed Biofilms in Infected Human Skin Tissues. Eur J Microbiol Immunol (Bp). 2019 Apr 11;9(2):46–55. doi: 10.1556/1886.2019.00003. PMID: 31223496; PMCID: PMC6563687.