The Mycology Laboratory serves as a comprehensive reference facility for all NYSDOH licensed clinical laboratories including: hospitals, academic medical centers, county health departments and commercial laboratories.

The laboratory houses a fungal culture collection repository, an outstanding resource for assay development, distribution and sale.

Research and development efforts complement diagnostic programs by focusing on innovations in fungal diagnostics and antifungal testing, mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis, and molecular epidemiology. These activities are carried out in collaboration with scientists at the Wadsworth Center and investigators from around the globe. Excellent opportunities are available for the training of undergraduate, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and clinical laboratory personnel. 

History

The Wadsworth Center Mycology Laboratory has a long history of excellence in both basic and applied research. The laboratory has made many notable contributions to the field with the most famous being the discoveries of the antifungal drug ‘nystatin’ by Drs. Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen, and the cryptococcal latex agglutination test by Dr. Morris Gordon. 

CLIA# 33D2005937 | PFI# 8523

Program Updates

Funding Opportunity: Screening for Candida auris at point-of-care

New questions and answers added September 27, 2019! The Wadsworth Center and Health Research Inc. are requesting applications from up to three investigators/inventors/companies to work closely with the Wadsworth Center to develop and optimize a point-of-care device that can detect the presence of Candida auris from a skin or nasal swab.

Wadsworth Center Welcomes Two New Fellows to the Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network

2017 marks the first year the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has sponsored fellows in the Antimicrobial Resistance Track.Per the sponsors, “The fellowship’s mission is to introduce scientists to public health laboratory science while building the workforce needed to detect and respond to existing and emerging forms of [antibiotic resistance] AR.”

Dr. Sudha Chaturvedi Fights Fire with Fire - Literally Using One Fungus to Fight Another

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.

NYSDOH Wadsworth Center is One of Only Seven in the US Designated by CDC as Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Regional Laboratories

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.