Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted by the bite of infected Ixodes ticks Lyme disease if left untreated can cause serious neurologic cardiac and/or rheumatologic complications. Our findings are the first to demonstrate that Lyme disease diagnosis can be carried out in a microfluidic format that can provide rapid quantitative results said Sam Sia professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering. This means that our test could easily be used directly in a doctor's office obviating having to send the samples out to a laboratory that needs at least a couple of hours if not days to get test results