Applied research at the Wadsworth Center encompasses a wide variety of highly collaborative activities. Staff are committed to perform extensive research to develop and apply new methods and technologies to detect and characterize human diseases, environmental analytes, and infectious disease pathogens. While focused on improving public health, this research often translates to clinical applications, which serve to fill gaps where commercial products and services are unavailable. Some examples in infectious diseases include application of molecular methods to detect cases of botulism, tuberculosis, pertussis and HIV-2. Clinical research is also aimed to improve methods for assessing genetic relatedness among microbes, which is essential to public health outbreak investigations and improving surveillance. In Newborn Screening, a major focus is on refining existing methods or developing new methods to screen for additional conditions and to reduce the number of false positive results. In environmental testing the focus is on expanding our capabilities in biomonitoring and to better detect new and existing contaminants.
You are here
Applied Research
Associated Researchers
-
Christina Egan, Ph.D.
- Deputy Director, Division of Infectious Diseases
We focus on the development and validation of assays to detect pathogens and toxins associated with bioterrorism or food-borne disease. We utilize methods such as real-time PCR, whole genome sequencing, and mass spectrometry for rapid detection of agents.
-
Kimberlee A. Musser, Ph.D.
- Clinical Director, Wadsworth Center David Axelrod Institute
We develop molecular diagnostic assays and reference testing for the detection and characterization of pathogenic bacteria and mycobacteria and to predict antibiotic resistance using real-time PCR and whole genome sequencing.
-
Patrick J. Parsons, Ph.D.
- Director, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
We study human exposure to toxic metals/metalloids (biomonitoring) and long-lived nuclides (radiobioassay); and develop novel speciation methods by coupling LC and GC to ICP-MS, while using portable XRF for field-based studies.