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In Albany, as in many places, August is the time when college students start back to school. But this August 17th at the Wadsworth Center, the Master of Science in Laboratory Sciences students are just finishing.As the only master’s degree program sponsored by a public health laboratory, students are immersed in the business of public health, from the policy, regulations and standards, to the research that goes into developing diagnostic tests and the testing of clinical and environmental specimens.

On August 3, 2016 New York State Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard A. Zucker announced the Wadsworth Center has been awarded $1.8 million to serve as one of seven labs in the nation designated as an Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Regional Laboratory. These laboratories, strategically placed across the country, will have specialized capabilities allowing rapid detection and identification of emerging antibiotic resistant threats.

Clarification is provided for the allowable testing in the physician office laboratory, where the technical component/professional component (TC/PC) split affects pathology specimens. 

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designated Albany's Wadsworth Laboratory as one of seven regional labs to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.  Read More at The Times Union.

Twenty-four years at the Wadsworth Center have given Keith Derbyshire, Ph.D., a career’s worth of MEMOs. Not the interoffice paper shuffle made obsolete by email and text messages, but a laboratory dedicated to MEMOs – Mobile Elements in Micro-Organisms.

Earlier this year, the Wadsworth Center became the first and only state public health laboratory in the nation to perform whole genome sequencing (WGS) of tuberculosis (TB) specimens. One case illustrates the enormous impact of WGS on TB testing and its central role in rapidly detecting and preventing the spread of drug-resistant TB strains among New York State’s general population.

Dr. Michele Caggana has been honored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) for her leadership in improving laboratory screening of newborns for genetic disorders. Dr. Caggana, director of the Newborn Screening Program at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center, received the Harry Hannon Laboratory Improvement Award in Newborn Screening at the APHL’s recent Newborn Screening and Genetic Testing Symposium in St. Louis.

Lyme disease, transmitted by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne disease in U.S. Vector-borne diseases are carried by mosquitoes, ticks or fleas. The bacterium is introduced during a tick bite and then survives in the bloodstream and can spread to the heart, joints, or brain. Infections can result in arthritis, neurological abnormalities or carditis. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 30,000 people are infected annually.

STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES COMPASSIONATE USE STUDIES OF CANNABIDIOL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS WITH TREATMENT-RESISTANT EPILEPSY Studies to be regulated under FDA’s Expanded Access Program 100 Children and Young Adults in New York Will be Enrolled at Five Sites Statewide

For information regarding changes to the cut-off values for the neonatal 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) kit for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) screening for specimens from babies collected less than 24 hours after birth and specimens from babies collected 14 days or more after birth click here.

My career as a laboratory scientist started in a yogurt factory. Yes, you read that correctly. And no, it was definitely not your typical lab experience. To read the rest of the article, see the APHL Lab Blog.  

The Wadsworth Center’s Bacteriology Laboratory played a pivotal role in the recent Legionella outbreak in New York City. The classical approach to Legionella testing is culture, but, as Legionella are slow growing and fastidious organisms and the water samples are usually heavily contaminated with other bacteria, obtaining results can take a long time, delaying the required public health response. In order to support more rapid decision making, Dr.

Commissioner of Health, Dr. Howard Zucker reflected that Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology frees those who, like Stephen Hawking, are locked-in by allowing the silent to speak and the immobile to move. It aids those with injury, illness and stroke by taking advantage of lifelong brain plasticity that not long ago we didn’t realize existed. With the use of hardware and software, thoughts can control a keyboard enabling the user to text, email or move a wheelchair.

The New York State Newborn Screening Program screens all infants born in the state for 47 different diseases. In addition, the program is currently performing a pilot study with Dr. Melissa Wasserstein (pictured left), from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, to screen for four additional diseases that are lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). Four New York City hospitals are participating and approximately 500 infants are being tested weekly in the pilot study.  The newest disorder to be tested is called Hurler syndrome.

The state Health Department's Wadsworth Centergraduated its second masters class on Wednesday. The two-year program blends traditional course study and an estimated 1,200 hours of work in Wadsworth's public laboratories. More of this article can be found at Albany Times Union.

On Monday June 15th the Lieutenant Governor, the Honorable Kathy Hochul, visited the David Axelrod Institute. She had specifically asked to learn more about our preparedness and biodefense activities, so the first stop was a tour of the Biodefense Laboratory. Dr. Christina Egan described the laboratory’s capabilities to detect agents-of-concern in white powders, as well as other environmental samples, and the major push in the development and evaluation of new technologies since the anthrax attacks of 2001.

When new risks to public health increase, the Wadsworth Center finds new scientists to address them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 2 million people are infected and 23,000 people die annually from drug resistant bacteria in the United States alone. Drug resistant tuberculosis in particular is described by CDC as a Serious Threat. For these reasons, bacterial drug resistance is a primary research focus for the Wadsworth Center.

Dr. May Chu, assistant director of public health, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, gives the keynote address during the Wadsworth Center Master of Laboratory Science graduation ceremony. To read the entire article, see the Albany Times Union.

In the David Axelrod Institute just past the expanse of Albany Medical Center's campus, Erin Hughes works to improve screening techniques for cystic fibrosis. To read more of this article, go to Albany Times Union. Lab science program readies first graduates