For bacteria, sharing genetic information can be critical to survival. It can also make them fitter, better pathogens, and more able to evade the immune system and resist antibiotics. One way bacteria share their genetic information is by a process called conjugation, in which DNA is transferred from a donor to a recipient strain. Incorporation of the donor genetic information into the recipient chromosome can confer novel functions to the resulting transconjugant cells.

“This is special. This is really special,” says Nellie Dumas, Associate Director of the Bacteriology Laboratory in regard to Wadsworth Center’s Clinical Laboratory Information Management System (CLIMS), an electronic way of tracking sample information from submission to reporting.  Why is CLIMS so special? Is it because of the impressive numbers: approximately 3,100 users outside of Wadsworth Center, 3,000 facilities, 1.8 million specimens and 16 million results to date?

Wadsworth Center Scientists, including graduates of the Masters of Science in Laboratory Sciences Program, laboratorians, research scientists, principal investigators, and the current and former Directors took part in the conference recently held at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Recently, the 10th annual Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology (LCM) Poster Day was held at the David Axelrod Institute. LCM Research Seminars take place monthly, September through June. This annual poster session kicks off the 31st year of seminars. Wadsworth Center staff from multiple sites attended. Highlights of eleven posters, all previously presented at scientific meetings locally and nationwide, follow.

Failing to work with a microorganism at the correct Biosafety Level (BSL) in the laboratory has the potential to place people at risk of accidental exposure to infectious agents, so it is not a surprise that the June 5, 2014 incident at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was such a high profile one.

Norovirus is a primary cause of acute gastroenteritis and foodborne disease in the United States where, according to the CDC, it is responsible for "19 - 21 million cases of acute gastroenteritis, 1.7 - 1.9 million outpatient visits and 400,000 emergency room visits per year. It also contributes to between 56,000 - 71,000 hospitalizations and 570 - 800 deaths per year, mostly among young children and the elderly." 

New York’s Wadsworth Center Laboratory was one of five state public health laboratories selected by the Association of Public Health Laboratories as a pilot site for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS). The Wadsworth Center Bacteriology and Mycobacteriology Laboratories will sequence all strains from patients in New York State, including New York City, with this highly comprehensive testing approach that assesses all 4.4 million bases of the MTBC genome.

NYSDOH Lab Part of a Consortium to Investigate Effects of Environmental Factors During Early Development on the Health of Children and Adolescents ALBANY, N.Y. (September 23, 2016) - New York State Department of Health today announced that its renowned laboratory, Wadsworth Center, has been awarded $1.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the launch of a seven-year initiative called Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO).

In 2014 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) made the first changes to the recommended HIV testing algorithm in a quarter of a century. According to the new scheme, a small portion of all specimens will require a final test not performed by most laboratories-a nucleic acid test or NAT.

White-nose syndrome, first identified in the US in New York during the winter of 2006-2007 has killed millions of North American bats, and as of May 2016, has been confirmed in 29 states and 5 Canadian territories.Threatened and endangered bat species alike are affected. In some locations, the little brown bat population is 10% of what it was before white-nose syndrome.