Click here for application and information about the program. Association of Public Health Laboratories 2026 Internship Flyer

Fatal drug poisoning (“overdose”) is a growing public health crisis in the United States. According to the United States National Vital Statistics System, 105,007 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2023. Whereas opioids (including prescription opioids, heroin, fentanyl and analogs) were the leading cause of overdose deaths, the pharmacological composition of drugs has evolved into a “polysubstance death” crisis.  

The Safe Drinking Water Act sets stringent standards for the detection of radioactive contaminants in public water systems. A new study from the Wadsworth Center’s Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory explores how these requirements might be exceeded through improved analytical sensitivity.

Dr. Denise Kay, Director of the New York State Newborn Screening Program at the Wadsworth Center, was invited to present at the 2025 North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference, held October 22–25 in Seattle, Washington.

Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan from the Division of Environmental Health Sciences (DEHS) at the Wadsworth Center, has been invited to serve on the Overdose Biosurveillance Task Force (OBTF), an advisory group charged by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Board of Directors to provide subject matter expertise and input into the creation, dissemination, and promotion of resources for public health laboratories developing and conducting overdose biosurveillance programs in response to the evolving overdose epidemic. 

The Wadsworth Center’s Mycobacteriology Laboratory was contacted by the Texas Department of State Health Services to perform drug susceptibility testing for a transplant recipient previously treated for pre-extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis beginning in 2022. After nine months of therapy, the patient was initially deemed cured following a treatment regimen consisting of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid (BPaL)—currently the standard for managing multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/XDR-TB).

The first meeting of the External Advisory Committee for Biomonitoring NY – Neighborhoods (BNY-Neighborhoods) was held on October 15, 2025. BNY-Neighborhoods represents the second phase of Biomonitoring NY (BNY), a statewide public health surveillance initiative conducted by scientists from the Wadsworth Center and the Center for Environmental Health (CEH).

Click here for the October 2025 revision to the remote activities policy.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO PREPARE FOR THIS CHANGE?

The Wadsworth Center’s Mycology Laboratory has developed an in-house MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization - time of flight mass spectrometry) library comprising rare yeast species, which is now one of the contributed databases available through the CDC’s MicrobeNet platform.

Dr. Joseph Orsini, Deputy Director of the Newborn Screening Program at the Wadsworth Center, has been honored with the 2025 George Cunningham Visionary Award in Newborn Screening. This prestigious lifetime achievement award recognizes individuals working in U.S.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) held its annual Newborn Screening Symposium from October 5–9 in Providence, Rhode Island, bringing together approximately 570 scientists and healthcare professionals from across the United States and around the world. The symposium addressed a broad range of topics critical to public health newborn screening systems, including enhanced biochemical and molecular screening technologies; methods for detecting new conditions; quality improvement initiatives; strateg

Approximately half of all cases of reported infertility in the United States involve malefactor, which is commonly diagnosed via standardized analysis of semen quality parameters that include sperm concentration, motility, and morphology.  

The New York State Newborn Screening Program housed at the Wadsworth Center was the first program in the U.S. to implement screening for sickle cell disease in 1975. Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder affecting hemoglobin, the major protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. The abnormal hemoglobin causes sickle-shaped red blood cells that can break down prematurely and/or block blood flow, leading to anemia, pain, infections, and other severe complications. Sickle cell disease affects more than 100,000 people in the U.S.

September is designated as Public Health Laboratory Appreciation Month. Wadsworth Center proudly joined the Association of Public Health Laboratories and colleagues nationwide in honoring the vital role these laboratories—and every individual within them—play in protecting public health. 

Read the New York State Department of Health Press Release.

Read the Association of Public Health Laboratories' Blog post spotlighting Wadsworth Center scientist Jean Rock.

The Wadsworth Center Biodefense Laboratory has been awarded $125,000 to develop, optimize, and validate threat-agnostic sequencing workflows for the rapid detection of pathogens in respiratory and other specimens. This project represents a critical step in strengthening New York State’s laboratory readiness and capacity to respond to infectious disease threats.  The initiative will integrate metagenomic and targeted sequencing methods with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Basestack software, including its TaxTriage module. 

The New York State Newborn Screening Program at the Wadsworth Center has become the first program in the United States to implement universal newborn screening for Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD), a devastating but now treatable lysosomal storage disorder.  MLD is caused by low or absent activity of the arylsulfatase A (ARSA) enzyme, leading to toxic accumulation of sulfatides and progressive damage to the nervous system.

Dr. Rajendra Agrawal of the Wadsworth Center was invited to speak at the Ribo25 Symposium (September 18–19, 2025) at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB), marking 25 years since the atomic structure of a bacterial ribosome subunit was solved – a discovery recognized with the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  Dr. Agrawal’s presentation, “The mammalian mitochondrial ribosomes: From first glimpses to current insights,” highlighted the Wadsworth Center’s pioneering work in mammalian (human) mitochondrial ribosome research. 

In August, Brooke Clemons of the Parasitology Laboratory and Kiran Mall of the Protein Expression and Biochemistry Core Laboratories graduated from the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Emerging Leader Program (ELP), Cohort 18.  They were selected as two of 25 participants nationwide for this yearlong program designed to cultivate leadership skills among laboratory professionals from state and local public health laboratories.  

Minneapolis, MN | September 7-9, 2025 – Dr. Norma Tavakoli, PhD, of the Wadsworth Center was a featured speaker at the Congenital Cytomegalovirus (cCMV) Public Health and Policy Conference, hosted by the University of Minnesota.  Her presentation, “A Pilot Study in New York State to Screen Newborns for Congenital Cytomegalovirus,” highlighted groundbreaking work conducted by the New York State Newborn Screening Program.  

The Wadsworth Center has been awarded funding through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Grant Program’s Antimicrobial Laboratory Network to support antimicrobial-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis activities from August 1, 2025 – July 31, 2026.  Two state public health laboratories, including the Wadsworth Center’s Mycobacteriology Laboratory, were selected to conduct whole genome sequencing (WGS) for culture-positive tuberculosis (TB) cases within their states. 

A new episode of the Inspired to Heal podcast, hosted by Dr. William (Bill) Trick – retired in 2024 after a distinguished career as a clinician, researcher, and CDC epidemiologist – features Wadsworth Center’s Dr. Kimberlee Musser alongside Dr. Don Weiss of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.  

Wadsworth Center senior scientists Drs. Janice D. Pata, Lili Kuo, and Paul S.

The Wadsworth Center was prominently represented at the annual Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages meeting (“Phages”) in Madison, Wisconsin – one of the premier international conferences in microbial genetics.  The meeting drew more than 350 researchers from around the world, spanning senior investigators to first-year trainees.  

The Environmental Laboratory Approval Program (ELAP) within the Wadsworth Center provides regulatory oversight of laboratories that test environmental samples collected in New York State.  These laboratories monitor for toxins, harmful microorganisms, carcinogens, and other hazardous substances.  

In the September 2025 issue of Clinical Microbiology Newsletter, a new three-part collaborative series, “Laboratory Diagnosis of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria,” was published with Wadsworth Center’s Dr. Kimberlee Musser as a coauthor.  Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are increasingly recognized as significant pathogens responsible for lung and other infections, particularly among individuals with underlying lung disease or weakened immune systems. NTM are frequently associated with nosocomial outbreaks, often traced to contaminated water sources. 

The Environmental Laboratory Approval Program (ELAP) within the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, has regulatory oversight of laboratories testing environmental samples collected in New York State. These laboratories analyze for a wide range of contaminants, including mercury, lead, PCBs, and “forever chemicals” (PFAS). As part of its mandate, ELAP conducts on-site inspections to ensure laboratory compliance.  

The New York State (NYS) Newborn Screening Program (NBSP) became the first state in the nation to screen for sickle cell disease in 1975. Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder, known also as hemoglobinopathy, that affects the shape and function of red blood cells in the body. It can cause anemia, painful episodes, infections, stroke/blood clots, and organ damage. If left untreated, this condition can cause significant illness and early death. Fortunately, with early diagnosis and treatment, health outcomes can be significantly improved.

Drs. Pallavi Ghosh and

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Grant (T32) titled “RNA Science and Technology in Health and Disease” was awarded to the University at Albany, State University of New York, for $1.8 million over the next five years to support seven RNA Fellows each year from the graduate education programs that comprise the RNA Institute.  

The Laboratory of Viral Diseases hosted a two-day enterovirus molecular characterization workshop on July 28th and 29th. The training was sponsored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and included scientists from state public health laboratories in New Jersey, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, California, Massachusetts, and Nebraska.  

On July 15, 2025, Wadsworth Center’s Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory (NCL), within the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, onboarded their third Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) fellow in the past three years.  

Read the Association of Public Health Laboratories' blog and interview with Wadsworth Center's own Rabies Laboratory Director, Dr. April Davis.

Dr. Joseph Orsini, Director of the Newborn Screening Program’s Biochemical Genetics Laboratory, represented the Wadsworth Center at the Hunter’s Hope Medical Symposium, held July 15-16, 2025, in Ellicottville, NY. He has attended this annual symposium since 2008, which brings together scientists, clinicians, newborn screening professionals, and families to advance understanding of Krabbe Disease and other leukodystrophies. 

The Wadsworth Center, the public health laboratory of the New York State Department of Health, has been selected to serve as the central reference testing laboratory for a major international clinical trial aimed at preventing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in vulnerable populations.

Dr. Spencer Bruce, Director of the Bioinformatics Core at the Wadsworth Center, recently took part in the Bioinformatics Leadership Program, held June 23-27, 2025, at the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.  

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases, with support from the Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hosted a 2025 Scientific Meeting on Candida auris in Miami, Florida from June 5-6, 2025.  

The Wadsworth Center’s Newborn Screening Program published their 2024 annual report, which provides an overview of screening results for each of the mandated conditions on the New York State panel. The 2024 panel included more than 50 conditions. In 2024, 246,895 specimens from 206,728 infants were screened, corresponding to an average of nearly 1,000 specimens for 50 conditions each day (50,000 screens performed daily). A total of 1,866 infants screened positive for one of the conditions on the panel and were referred for diagnostic testing, evaluation, follow-up and treatment.

Wadsworth Center received the 2025 APHL Award for Excellence in Applied Research on Infectious Diseases, recognizing outstanding contributions to the field of infectious disease laboratory research, with a particular focus on public health laboratory impact. The award acknowledges the important work of public health laboratorians that bridges scientific discovery and innovation with practical application.

Drs. Rajendra Agrawal and Soneya Majumdar represented the Wadsworth Center at Ribosomes 2025, the Triennial Ribosome Meeting held June 22–27 in Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California.  

On June 25, 2025, Dr. Sherry Faye, Technical 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 careers in nuclear science.  Dr. Faye presented an overview of the NCL’s mission and capabilities, including:

On June 25–26, the Newborn Screening Mass Spectrometry Laboratories at the Wadsworth Center hosted Dr. Naija Cottingham, a Fellow from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  Dr. Cottingham is the first participant in this new Fellowship Program, initiated by Dr. Jaya Ganesh, Interim Program Director of the Medical Residency Training Program and Director of the Newborn Screening Inherited Metabolic Disease Specialty Care Center at Mount Sinai.  

Dr. Thomas Bartlett and Dr. Siân Owen from the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Genetics attended the 2025 Boston Bacterial Meeting (BBM) in Cambridge, MA – one of the nation’s premier microbiology conferences, drawing over 500 experts annually.  

Dr. Patrick Parsons, Director of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the Wadsworth Center, was invited to present at the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Community of Practice Food Chemistry meeting.  

The Wadsworth Center proudly hosted a Light Microscopy Imaging Workshop from June 9-13, 2025, focused on advancing research and collaboration in biomedical imaging.  Organized by Rich Cole and Danielle Hunt from the Center’s Advanced Light Microscopy and Image Analysis Core, the event welcomed 43 participants from institutions across the region, including the University at Albany, Albany Medical College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Rochester, and the Neural Stem Cell Institute. 

The global challenge of antibiotic resistance continues to drive innovative research into bacterial growth and division. Dr. Thomas Bartlett, a newly appointed principal investigator in the Division of Genetics at the Wadsworth Center, chaired the Cell Division session at the prestigious Gordon Research Conference on Bacterial Cell Biology and Development, held in Manchester, NH. Dr.

In June 2025, the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences (DEHS) participated in Operation Mohawk Arrow, a multiday, full-scale emergency preparedness exercise coordinated with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Read more about the Wadsworth Center's academic engagement in the Summer 2025 issue of the Association of Public Health Laboratories' Lab Matters.

Raman spectroscopy, a widely used technique for qualitative chemical analysis, has taken a significant step forward into the realm of quantitative applications thanks to a new method co-developed by Dr. George Donati of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences, in collaboration with research partners in Brazil. 

A recent case from New York’s Newborn Screening Program (NBSP) highlights the essential partnership between state and county health departments in ensuring timely diagnosis and treatment for newborns with rare but serious conditions.

  Members of the Bacteriology and Parasitology Laboratories participated in “Wellness Day” at Tesago Elementary School in Clifton Park, engaging students in an exciting and educational public health experience. The outreach team included Ashley Alderman, Kate Wahl, Ashley Marcinkiewicz, Lynn Leach, Paris Strong, John Jurczynski, Majie Foster, and John Kelly, and was led by Kara Mitchell and James Chithalen.  

Ms. Beverly Rauch, Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program (CLEP) Director at the NYS DOH’s Wadsworth Center, delivered a featured presentation at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Blood Banks Association of New York (BBANYS). 

Dr. Susan Madison-Antenucci, Chief of Bloodborne & Parasitic Diseases at the Wadsworth Center, spoke at the New York Medical College symposium titled “Vector borne Infections in the Hudson Valley – There’s More Than Just Lyme Out There.”The goal of the event was to raise awareness of the broader spectrum of tickborne diseases, supporting faster diagnosis and appropriate treatment for patients throughout the state.

The Obstacle Imagine the 35th Waste-Management and Education Research Conference (WERC), a national engineering competition, is rapidly approaching. Your team, Mycosorb Environmental, is using fungi to absorb metals from mining waters, but culture after culture gets contaminated and doesn’t grow well due to temperature and humidity issues. You finally get your mycoremediation columns up and running, and now you can’t find an instrument to identify and quantitate the metals. When you finally find one, it isn’t working!

New York State Department of Health Press Release Related links:

Five-Year Contract Enables Department to Advance Understanding of the Bacterium Causing Lyme DiseaseRead the New York State Department of Health press release.

Center Will Be a Major Contributor to Federal Influenza SurveillanceSee the New York State Department of Health Press Release

​Read about infectious disease fellow Majie Foster and how her "sense of service crossed from the military to the laboratory."

Beverly Rauch, Deputy Director of the Division of Laboratory Quality Certification and Director of the Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program (CLEP) was a guest on LabMind, an ARUP Laboratories’ education department podcast.  Beverly described the history of the NYS CLEP program and discussed how CLEP provides regulatory oversight of clinical laboratories.Click here to read more and listen to the podcast.

Funding from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will Expand Biomonitoring Efforts to Identify Harmful Chemicals in New Yorkers Click above to read the press release and below to learn more about the programs.

At this year's Laboratory Response Network for Biological Threats Preparedness (LRN-B) Technical Meeting, Biodefense Laboratory Director Michael Perry received the Excellence in Leadership Award for leadership "instrumental to the LRN-B mission" and for "significant contributions" to the field. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), also recognized Wadsworth Center's Biodefense Laboratory with Certificates of Appreciation for the following:

The Wadsworth Center has partnered with the Association of Public Health Laboratories to host the Public Health Lab Academy!

From environmental projects characterizing and quantitating contaminants in our water, food and even inside us, to infectious disease projects addressing antimicrobial resistance, “one of the world’s most urgent public health problems”, and studying factors that contribute to emerging infections, these seed grant-supported projects span a wide range of fields.

APHL Honors 2024 Newborn Screening Award Winners 

Wadsworth Center and SUNY Global Health Institute collaborate to create the New York State Global Health Interface Platform. The partnership is to provide training for future public health and biomedical research professionals and strengthen international grant opportunities. Read the New York State Department of Health Press Release

The study is published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The Department issues a joint Health Advisory to health care providers related to increased Oropouche virus activity and associated risk to travelers.

The State Health Department's Wastewater Surveillance Program  is integral to advanced COVID-19 tracking and nation-leading polio detection efforts. The program is now testing for Influenza, RSV, Hepatitis A, Norovirus and antimicrobial-resistant genes.Read the New York State Department of Health's press release.

Across the globe, harmful algal blooms caused by cyanobacteria, also known as CyanoHABs, are increasing in frequency, intensity and duration, impacting drinking and recreational waters. In New York State (NYS), they have been reported in >200 lakes, and are responsible for increasing beach closures over the past decade, prompting the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to expand lake monitoring programs to include CyanoHAB monitoring.

All newborns in New York State are screened for 52 disorders including all 37 on the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP).  Because of the immense impact newborn screening has on public health, a committee of professionals continually evaluates conditions for addition to the RUSP. Pilot studies such as ScreenPlus can help determine if a new test for a disorder provides results that are beneficial to the health of the newborn and, therefore, the disorder should be added to the panel.

Before COVID most of us probably never thought about how the organisms that cause disease inherit their genetic material and how that impacts their ability to be “successful” pathogens.  Drs. Todd Gray and Keith Derbyshire at the Wadsworth Center have been thinking about this for a long time. 

Over 10 people per hour, nearly 300 per day, every day lose their lives to drugs nationwide. 

Some of the work of the cores, such as media preparation, is based on techniques that go back over a hundred years, even to the beginnings of what became the Wadsworth Center. Other Wadsworth Center cores perform high-quality antigen production, sophisticated image analysis and manipulation, and sequencing and bioinformatic analysis that may be completed in hours to days rather than weeks or months, often providing comprehensive assessment of a full bacterial genome.