Groundbreaking work performed in Albany leads to revolution in science and medicine Dr. Rajendra Agrawal has long expected his former Wadsworth Center colleague Dr. Joachim Frank to win the Nobel Prize. This year, it happened. On October 4th, Dr. Frank was named one of three winners of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Frank shares the prize with Drs. Richard Henderson of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England and Jacques Dubochet from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Laboratory and follow-up staff (those who communicate results to the medical community) from six states (MA, OH, TN, TX, VA and WA) attended a two and a half-day workshop in Albany co-sponsored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the New York State Department of Health. Training was provided by the experts at the Wadsworth Center as well as four expert guest speakers. Participants received hands-on technical training for Pompe disease, X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) and mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I), including:

Dr. Kirsten St. George, Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at Wadsworth Center, was recently invited to speak at a technical workshop hosted by the Trust for Science Technology and Research of Puerto Rico, the Brain Trust for Tropical Diseases Research & Prevention, and the CDC Dengue Branch.

For the second year in a row, a Wadsworth Center director has received the Harry Hannon Laboratory Improvement Award in Newborn Screening from the Assocation of Public Health Laboratories (APHL). Joseph Orsini, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Newborn Screening Program at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center, received the award at the APHL Newborn Screening and Genetic Testing Symposium in New Orleans. Last year, the award was presented to the Director of the Program, Michele Caggana, Sc.D., FACMG.

New York State Department of Health Press Release October 4, 2017

On August 16, 2017 Wadsworth Center’s Master of Science in Laboratory Sciences (MLS) Program graduates its fourth class. One component of Wadsworth Center’s mission is education. The work of this year’s three graduates links the MLS Program to the Center’s primary mission: public health.

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” -Babe Ruth As any fan or parent who spends countless hours at the field can tell you, it’s baseball season. Just as the baseball stars we watch on TV have put decades of hard work into becoming the best in their field, so too have the Wadsworth Center staff who received national recognition at the annual Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) meeting this June. Their many contributions and exceptional leadership over the years make them all winners.

Members of Wadsworth Center’s Bacteriology Laboratory, along with a guest lecturer from the CDC, provided a 2-day classroom and hands-on workshop in culture, susceptibility and DNA detection of antibiotic resistant bacteria for 12 laboratory professionals from 7 state public health laboratories.

FDA accredits Wadsworth Center as a 3rd party reviewer for selected premarket notifications or 510(k)s, which allows the Center to review, on FDA’s behalf, certain devices that fall under this classification. This accreditation represents the recognition of the expertise acquired by the Center’s staff from reviewing laboratory developed tests as part of New York’s Clinical Laboratory Reference System.

At the recent Clinical Virology Symposium in Savannah, Georgia, Dr. St. George, Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the Wadsworth Center, was presented with the 2017 Diagnostic Virology Award. Established in 1985, this international career-achievement award from the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology, acknowledges an individual whose contributions to viral diagnosis have had a major impact on the discipline.