Please read these important FAQs regarding newborn screening and COVID-19.

Wadsworth Center has long been committed to providing the next generation of public health professionals with the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities. More than 300 students have made Wadsworth Center their summer home over the course of nearly 30 years through the National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program.

Wadsworth Center’s David Axelrod Institute, and all of Wadsworth Center for that matter, may be known to many as a place for research and education. But there’s a lot of clinical testing that goes on here too. You could even say the work performed here impacts every native New Yorker - from screening every baby born in the state, to testing for the measles, the flu, Legionella, Zika, C. auris, Ebola and much, much more. It all happens here.

Changes described are effective for specimens received and tested as of September 25, 2019.

This award recognizes those who effectively advance ethical science through significant, innovative contributions to the 3Rs of animal research - Refinement, Replacement and Reduction. Up to four such awards are presented annually – one each from North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, and countries outside these three geographic areas.

Wadsworth Center Welcomes Dr. Jon Paczkowski Dr. Paczkowski received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2014 and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Bassler Laboratory at Princeton University prior to joining the Wadsworth Center. Here he uses the model organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa to study microbial signal transduction and cell-cell communication.

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.

The Summer 2019 issue of the Association of Public Health Laboratories' (APHL) publication Lab Matters features an article recognizing the work of the Wadsworth Center's Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network (AR Lab Network) - Northeast Regional Lab.  

The first in a series of six webinars and associated power point presentations is available. Topics include: Specimen collection, shipping, tracking and resulting Babies in the NICU Requests for repeats Referrals to specialty care centers Birth attendants Process improvement

As of July 1, 2019, the changes outlined in the Letter to Healthcare Providers are effective. ​

Wadsworth Center Director Dr. Jill Taylor welcomed to the ceremony honored guests and speakers including Dr. Howard Zucker, New York State Health Commissioner; H.E. Ambassador István Pásztor, Consul General, New York; and Dr. Jonathan Jakus, Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology Montefiore Nyack Hospital and US Representative of the Semmelweis Memorial Committee.

Virology Laboratory staff member Greg Farrell is the inaugural recipient of the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) Lifetime Achievement Award. Unsolicited. Inaugural. Lifetime Achievement. Weighty words.

The application period is closed. Check back Spring 2020.   About the Wadsworth Center Fellowship Program The mission of the Wadsworth Center Fellowship Program is to provide scientists with broad experience in laboratory science and research in infectious disease, genetics, environmental health or translational medicine. Fellows will gain broad experience at one of the nation’s premier public health laboratories, renowned for developing and utilizing high complexity testing using advanced technologies and state of the art equipment.

Dr. Derbyshire joins the ranks of distinguished scientists recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 1874 - from Thomas Edison and Linus Pauling, to four of the 2018 Nobel Prize laureates. AAAS recognized Dr. Derbyshire “for distinguished contributions to the fields of molecular biology and microbial genetics, particularly in DNA exchange by transposition and conjugation in mycobacteria.”

Every three years, the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) bestows the Richard M. Taylor Award on an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of arbovirology throughout his or her career. 

Wadsworth Center scientists from the Mycobacteriology and Bacteriology Laboratories, the Bioinformatics and Statistics Core, and the Sequencing Core, supported, developed and validated a test based on whole genome sequencing that provides comprehensive resistance detection for TB. The TB Laboratory started work on a whole genome sequencing resistance test about five years ago. After demonstrating that the test provided rapid, accurate and comprehensive drug prediction, they began using it as the first line of testing on Oct. 1, 2018.

As announced in the Executive Budget Briefing Book

On the heels of receiving the 2017 Diagnostic Virology Award, an international career achievement award, Dr. Kirsten St. George, Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases, was presented with the Alumni Award from the University of South Australia (UniSA) in Adelaide.

Newborn screening specimens are now tested for exposure to HIV using a new first-tier HIV screening immunoassay and a new second-tier HIV-1 / HIV-2 supplemental immunoassay. This new assay has several benefits including the ability to identify newborns exposed to HIV-2. More information is available in the letter to health care providers and on the Screened Disorders page under Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Each year, Wadsworth Center’s Arbovirology Laboratory undertakes the seasonal surveillance of mosquitoes for arboviral pathogens. Surveillance is important for control of vector-borne viruses. First, it tells us which mosquito species are present and where. Different species are capable of transmitting different pathogens, so this is crucial information. Second, it allows us to know exactly which pathogens are being carried by the mosquitoes present. Together, this informs the public, informs mosquito control efforts, and alerts physicians.