On December 3–4, 2025, Dr. Joseph Orsini, PhD, of the Wadsworth Center, participated in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ (APHL) annual Newborn Screening (NBS) Face-to-Face Committee Meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Orsini serves as Co-Chair of the national NBS Committee, which provides guidance, develops best practices, and addresses emerging challenges to ensure high-quality newborn screening programs across the United States.

The New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center and Division of Epidemiology have been selected to participate in a major multinational study evaluating the effectiveness of a pneumococcal vaccine currently licensed in Europe. The study fulfills a post-authorization requirement of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and brings together leading public health institutions from Europe, the Americas, and Israel. 

A research team at the Wadsworth Center has developed an innovative, environmentally friendly method for extracting trace metals from biological samples without the use of concentrated mineral acids. Led by Dr. George Donati, Deputy Director of the Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, the study demonstrates a safer, greener alternative to conventional digestion techniques used in environmental, toxicological, and food safety testing. 

On November 14, 2025, representatives from the Wadsworth Center’s Newborn Screening Program joined faculty, a clinician, and students at the University at Albany’s College of Integrated Health Sciences (CIHS) for the College’s first interprofessional education (IPE) event. The session, titled “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Newborn Screening,” brought together over 50 students from public health, nursing, and social welfare programs to explore how different professions collaborate to support newborn screening and follow-up care. 

Three senior pathology residents from Albany Medical Center participated in a two-day rotation in the Wadsworth Center’s Newborn Screening Program DNA Laboratory, where they observed workflows, gained hands-on experience, and learned about the genetic testing that supports New York State’s comprehensive newborn screening program. 

The Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program (CLEP) within the Wadsworth Center has taken an important step to support the expansion of Hospital at Home (HaH) services in New York State. CLEP, which has regulatory oversight authority for all clinical laboratories under Article 5, Title 5 of the New York State Public Health Law (PHL), ensures that any facility performing tests on human-derived materials meets state standards for quality and safety. This authority applies not only to hospital-based laboratories but wherever testing is performed – including at home. 

The Wadsworth Center had a strong presence at the 68th Annual Radiobioassay and Radiochemical Measurements Conference, held the week of November 2, 2025, in Idaho Falls. This annual meeting serves as a leading scientific forum for advancing technologies in the detection, measurement, and analysis of radioactive materials.

The Newborn Screening Program at the Wadsworth Center has been awarded a two-year Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Screening Improvement Program (SIP) grant titled CF-GENES-II: Improving Genetic Counseling Access for Caregivers of Infants with Cystic Fibrosis Newborn Screen-Positive, Inconclusive Diagnosis in New York State.The Wadsworth Center screens every infant born in New York State for cystic fibrosis (CF). Infants with positive screening results are referred to one of the state’s specialty care centers for diagnostic testing, clinical evaluation, treatment, and follow-up.

Due to limitations in arbovirus testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Wadsworth Center’s Viral Encephalitis Laboratory, Diagnostic Immunology Laboratory and Arbovirus Laboratory have been under federal contract since April to provide diagnostic testing for patients across the United States.

Dr. George Donati, Deputy Director of the Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry at the Wadsworth Center, recently co-authored a study led by Professor Chelsie Armbruster of SUNY Buffalo.