All News

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Annual Newborn Screening Symposium was held October 11-15 in New Orleans, Louisiana. An estimated 500 scientists and health care professionals from across the United States and other countries attended the symposium. The meeting addressed state, national, and international newborn screening, genetic testing, and policy issues central to public health newborn screening systems.

On October 15, Dr. Joseph Wade, Associate Director for Research and Technology at the Wadsworth Center, organized a half-day retreat for scientists leading independent public health research programs. Held at the University at Albany, 52 participants, including three senior staff members from Health Research, Inc., attended.

Dr. Soneya Majumdar, a postdoctoral fellow in the Agrawal Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center, presented her research at the Life Sciences Research Symposium held at the University at Albany on October 13, 2026.  

Universal newborn screening for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been mandatory in New York State since 1997. The goal of screening is to prevent mother-to-child transmission by using approaches including antiretroviral therapy in the newborn and lactating mother. Screening is performed at the Wadsworth Center using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that detects maternal antibodies in dried blood spots from newborns. Newborns who screen positive are referred to an infectious disease specialist for follow-up.

Wadsworth Center Deputy Director Dr. James Chithalen presented the 36th Leonard A. Ford Lectureship at Minnesota State University Mankato.  The lectureship is supported by Barbara Olson and Joyce Anderson in honor of their father, Leonard A.

Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences presented at the Overdose to Action in States Biosurveillance Technical Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.  Fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses have increased in New York State since 2010. The New York State Department of Health uses multiple data sources – including mortality, emergency department, hospitalization, and emergency medical services data – to monitor overdose trends and support prevention efforts.

The Community. Advancement. Recruitment. Engagement. (CARE) Steering Committee recently completed its second year of bringing staff from across the Wadsworth Center together to develop and execute initiatives that strengthen the laboratory's workforce.The Steering Committee began with 23 staff representing areas across the Center and has continued to grow, with 25 members participating in its second year. The committee's activities have focused on all aspects of the central CARE mission: Build community, advance careers, promote recruitments, and engage people.

Dr. Sudha Chaturvedi, Director of the Mycology Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center, has been selected by the American Academy of Microbiology as the 2027 recipient of the Elizabeth O. King Award. This prestigious honor recognizes researchers who have made significant contributions to public health and to the discovery of new pathogens. Dr. Chaturvedi is being recognized for her innovative research in fungal diagnostics, genomics, drug resistance, and pathogenesis. 

Dr. Jordan Holl, an Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Fellow conducting original research under the mentorship of Dr. Anil Ojha in the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Genetics, presented his work during APHL’s Fellowship & Internship Project Presentation Webinar Series on September 17, 2026.  Jordan’s  Dr.

Wadsworth Center scientists Drs. Rajendra K. Agrawal, Nilesh K. Banavali, and Soneya Majumdar presented research at the 20th Translational Control meeting, held September 1-5 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) invited Dr. Patrick Parsons, Director of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences, to participate in its Expert Consultation on Prevention, Clinical Management and Surveillance of Lead Exposure in the WHO South-East Asia Region. The meeting took place August 11-13, 2026, in Kathmandu, Nepal. 

The New York State Department of Health Wadsworth Center Biodefense Laboratory received two national awards at the 2026 Laboratory Response Network for Biological Threats Preparedness (LRN-B) Technical Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on September 3. The awards were presented by the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for significant contributions to national biological-threat preparedness and response.

Subpart 58-1 of Title 10 of the New York State Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) was amended, and new Subpart 58-6 was adopted on September 2, 2026.

On July 15, 2026, Dr. Sherry Faye, Director of the Wadsworth Center’s Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory (NCL), served as an invited guest speaker at the U.S. Department of Energy and American Chemical Society-sponsored Nuclear Chemistry Summer School (NCSS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory.  This highly selective six-week program is designed to introduce undergraduate students to graduate programs and careers in nuclear science.  Dr. Faye presented an overview of the NCL’s mission and capabilities, including

Dr. Joseph Orsini, Deputy Director of the New York State Newborn Screening Program at the Wadsworth Center, co-authored the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ Metachromatic Leukodystrophy Toolkit.  The resource supports public health programs considering implementation of newborn screening for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD).  The toolkit provides an overview of MLD and the newborn-screening process, practical implementation guidance, and educational materials for physicians who follow up with families after a positive screen. Dr.

Dr. Patrick Parsons, Director of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences, was invited to present on the analysis of mercury-containing skin-lightening creams at the 14th Annual Meeting of AOAC INTERNATIONAL in Indianapolis, Indiana, on September 1, 2026.  The use of mercurial compounds to treat skin conditions or lighten skin has occurred for centuries.  Although the U.S.

Every year many hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. result from serious infections caused by bacteria resistant to a powerful group of antibiotics called carbapenems.To fight these dangerous infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created guidelines that focus on: 

These newborn screening annual reports are provided for informational use only, and should not be used for research purposes. Because of the way the report is constructed, the values for individual conditions are subject to change. Please contact the program for up-to-date information.

The Wadsworth Center’s Laboratory of Viral Diseases has identified an emergent echovirus 17 (E17) genotype affecting communities in the Mid-Atlantic region and New York City. The cluster was detected through enhanced enterovirus surveillance initiated following identification of the 2022 poliovirus case. More than 40 E17 cases have been identified, primarily among neonates younger than 30 days.

A recent study coauthored by a Wadsworth Center scientist suggests that following U.S. dietary guidelines during pregnancy may reduce exposure to some, but not all, environmental chemicals. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, examined how diet quality relates to chemical exposures among pregnant participants in the National Institutes of Health-funded Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.