Published on New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center (https://wadsworth.org)

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The Wadsworth Center's Dr. Sherry Faye Presents Invited Talk During the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Chemistry Summer School at Brookhaven National Laboratory [5]

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

Wadsworth Leader Co-Authors National Toolkit for Newborn Screening of Metachromatic Leukodystrophy [8]

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.

Wadsworth Center Identifies Resurgence of Echovirus 17 in New York State [17]

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.

Wadsworth Center Coauthor Finds Healthy Pregnancy Diets May Reduce Exposure to Some Environmental Chemicals [20]

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.

Wadsworth Center Trainees Showcase Genetics Research at Premier National Conference [23]

Wadsworth Center trainees and investigators made a strong showing at the 2026 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages meeting (“Phages”), held August 3-7 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  The annual conference is a premier national forum for researchers studying bacterial and phage biology at the molecular level, with a distinctive emphasis on trainee-led presentations.  Trainees from the Paczkowski, Gray, and Wade laboratories delivered oral presentations that highlighted the breadth and quality of research in the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Genetics.  Their w

Wadsworth Center’s Dr. Joseph Orsini, PhD Attends Hunter's Hope Medical Symposium, July 13-16, 2026, Ellicottville, NY [29]

The New York State was the first state to initiate newborn screening for Krabbe disease thanks to the Newborn Screening Program at the Wadsworth Center. Krabbe disease is a rare and often fatal leukodystrophy affecting the white matter of the brain and the central and peripheral nervous systems. 

Wadsworth Center’s Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan serves on the working group of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to evaluate carcinogenicity of three phthalate plasticizers [32]

Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences (DEHS) serves on the working group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to evaluate the carcinogenicity of butyl benzyl phthalate (BBzP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and diisononyl phthalate (DINP). 

Wadsworth Center Division of Genetics Principal Investigators Attend Gordon Research Conference [35]

Drs. Anil Ojha and Pallavi Ghosh of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Genetics attended the Microbial Stress Response Gordon Research Conference at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Dr. Ojha presented research on ribosome hibernation in mycobacteria, a process that can promote the persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during antibiotic treatment. Dr. Ghosh presented her work on sigma factor D responses and rifampicin resistance in Mycobacterium abscessus.

NIH grant awarded to Wadsworth Center scientist to advance research on antimicrobial resistance [38]

Dr. Siân Owen, a Principal Investigator and Research Scientist at the Wadsworth Center, has been awarded a highly competitive five-year, $1.97 million Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Wadsworth Center Scientist Delivers Keynote at Trans-NIH Workshop on Micro- and Nanoplastic Measurement [41]

Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences delivered a keynote lecture at the Trans-NIH Workshop on Micro- and Nanoplastic Measurement for Population Studies, held at the National Cancer Institute’s Shady Grove campus in Maryland on July 9-10, 2026. Dr.

Wadsworth Center’s Newborn Screening Program Hosts National Training Workshop on Emerging Newborn Screening Disorders [47]

The Wadsworth Center’s Newborn Screening Program hosted a specialized national training workshop at the David Axelrod Institute in Albany from June 10-12, 2026, providing laboratory and follow-up professionals from newborn screening programs across the United States with training on five disorders recently added to the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP): Krabbe disease, guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency, mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD).

Wadsworth Center Assists Broome County in Large Correctional Facility Foodborne Illness Investigation [50]

The Wadsworth Center Bacteriology Laboratory, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Communicable Disease Control (BCDC), the Bureau of Community Environmental Health and Food Protection, and the Broome County Department of Public Health, is assisting in the investigation of a large foodborne outbreak of Salmonella enterica associated with the Broome County Correctional Facility.

Wadsworth Center Scientist Presents AI-Driven Microscopy Research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Symposium [53]

Dr. Jiada Li of the Wadsworth Center’s Bioinformatics Core attended the 90th Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Symposium on Quantitative Biology, AI in Biology, held in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, from May 26-31, 2026. During the symposium, Dr. Li presented a poster titled “Leveraging a Fine-Tuned Vision Foundation Model for Precise Mycobacterial Cell Segmentation and Fluorescence Event Classification in Multi-Channel Time-Lapse Microscopy Images.” The work, co-authored with Tayler Farrington, Dr. Spencer Bruce, and Dr.

Wadsworth Center Scientist Presents Advances in Human Mercury Biomonitoring at the Brazilian Congress of Toxicology [56]

Dr. Patrick Parsons, Director of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the Wadsworth Center, presented recent advances in human mercury biomonitoring at the XXIV Brazilian Congress of Toxicology (CBTOX 2026), held in São Paulo, Brazil, from June 3-6, 2026.

Wadsworth Center Scientists Share Advances in Molecular Newborn Screening at CDC Training Workshop [59]

Dr. Carlos Saavedra-Matiz and Dr. Denise Kay of the Wadsworth Center’s Newborn Screening Program participated in the 2026 Newborn Screening Molecular Training Workshop, co-sponsored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The workshop was held in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 1-5, 2026.