The Wadsworth Center’s Division of Infectious Disease was prominently represented at the 9th European Study Group for Legionella Infections (ESGLI) Meeting, held in Palermo, Italy, from November 12-14, 2025. Danielle Wroblewski, a scientist in the Food and Waterborne Unit of the Bacterial Diseases Laboratory, was invited to deliver two presentations showcasing research conducted at the Wadsworth Center to advance the detection of Legionella in both human and environmental samples.
Participation in this meeting allowed Ms. Wroblewski to share the Wadsworth Center’s innovations and to establish new collaborations with scientists, public health authorities, and industry partners across multiple countries to strengthen Wadsworth Center’s capabilities in surveillance, outbreak investigation, and response to Legionella infections including:
- Comparing Legionella sequence types across different geographic regions
- Utilizing CRISPR-based tools for detecting Legionella in blood, urine, and environmental matrices
- Identifying non–Legionella pneumophila species in outbreak investigations
- Investigating false positives in commercially available Legionella detection kits
- Exploring the use of mass spectrometry to rapidly identify outbreak-related clusters and improve laboratory turnaround time
Ms. Wroblewski delivered the following presentations:
- “Comparison of Promega Maxwell Automated Extractor to Detect Legionella pneumophila Serogroup 1 (Lp1) in Primary and Environmental Specimens”
- “The Utilization of IDEXX Legiolert™ for the Recovery and Isolation of Legionella pneumophila Serogroup 1 (Lp1) in Clinical and Environmental Specimens”
Her contributions helped highlight the Wadsworth Center’s leadership in method development and applied public health microbiology, while strengthening international partnerships focused on Legionella infection prevention, detection, and remediation.