$2.7M NIH grant to fund first comprehensive syphilis test

In the United States, syphilis cases rose by nearly 80% between 2018 and 2023, with 209,253 cases reported in the latest year of data. The infection, which can be transmitted sexually or passed from mother to infant during birth, is curable but only if diagnosed quickly. Left untreated, syphilis can progress from painless lesions to brain and cardiovascular damage. Despite the first recorded outbreak of syphilis occurring more than 500 years ago — with some researchers theorizing that it has plagued humans for thousands of years — there still isn’t a way to quickly and reliably test for active syphilis infection, according to Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan.