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. 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.

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.

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. 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.

On August 6, 2026, Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences presented “Chemical Exposures Among Overdose Patients” during the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ (APHL) Overdose Community of Practice webinar.  Dr. Kannan’s presentation highlighted that individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) are a vulnerable population who may experience elevated exposure to toxic environmental chemicals. Factors contributing to these exposures include:

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. 

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.

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: 

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.

Research led by Dr. Nilesh Banavali and colleagues at the Wadsworth Center has been selected...

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Kimberlee Musser of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Infectious Diseases was invited to attend the Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Laboratory Network Central Region Laboratory In-Person Meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10-12, as a cross-regional representative of the Northeast AR Laboratory Network. Dr. Musser delivered a presentation and contributed to discussions throughout the meeting, drawing on 10 years of experience supporting the Wadsworth Center’s role in the Northeast Regional AR Laboratory Network.

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). 

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. 

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.

Dr. Thomas Bartlett attended the 2026 conference for the American Society of Microbiology’s premier annual meeting held in Washington, DC, from June 3-7.