State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center Selected As National Influenza Reference Center for 2025-2030

Center Will Be a Major Contributor to Federal Influenza Surveillance

ALBANY, N.Y. (January 23, 2025) - The New York State Department of Health today announced that the Wadsworth Center was selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a competitive grant award to serve as a National Influenza Reference Center for 2025-2030. With this funding from the CDC, the Wadsworth Center will serve as an influenza reference center for the nation, enhancing the capacity and capability of New York State, while leading national efforts to genetically characterize influenza samples from flu positive patients across twenty U.S. states, primarily by whole genome sequence analysis.

"Public health surveillance for influenza viruses is more important than ever, and the Wadsworth Center and the Department are not only protecting New Yorkers, we're also protecting the nation," State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said. "Through this award, the Wadsworth Center will be a major contributor to federal influenza surveillance and vaccine preparedness. This achievement displays the Center's commitment to excellence and enhancing public health for New York State and beyond."

Under the leadership of Dr. Kirsten St. George, the Center's application received the highest score of any application submitted. The Center was concurrently awarded funds for specialty analysis with culture-based assays to assess phenotypic antiviral susceptibility in influenza samples.

The laboratory was also awarded a five-year contract to serve as a reference center for vaccine preventable viral diseases from 2025-2030, performing testing for the detection and genomic characterization of mumps, measles, rubella, Varicella-zoster virus (VZV), enterovirus, and adenovirus, from 12 U.S. states. This work supports outbreak prevention and response efforts, as well as monitoring virus evolution for evidence of vaccine evasion.

Governor Hochul's FY 2024 enacted budget included $1.7 billion to fully fund the consolidation of Wadsworth Laboratories' five unconnected sites to one site on the W. Averell Harriman Campus in Albany by 2030. This consolidation will ensure that our nation-leading public health research laboratory remains on the cutting-edge of biomedical and environmental research critical to protecting the health of New Yorkers.

The Wadsworth Center focuses on a wide range of critical public health concerns, including responding to public health threats, studying emerging infections, analyzing environmental exposures, and licensing clinical and environmental laboratories, among other critical responsibilities. Since its origins in developing communicable disease treatments in 1901 and the development of the Division of Laboratories and Research in 1914, the Wadsworth Center has grown to become the largest and most diverse state public health laboratory in the U.S.

The Wadsworth Center is a major collaborator in the State's Wastewater Surveillance Network and program, which has provided health officials with an additional mechanism to assess COVID circulation in communities. The results are used, alongside clinical case information and test data, to provide a more comprehensive view and advance tracking of transmission trends. The Wadsworth Center also coordinates the genetic sequencing of wastewater samples to identify variants of the virus that causes COVID. These new tools and capabilities enable the Department and local health departments to target their public health responses effectively.

The Center's work has been paramount in detecting poliovirus in certain areas. Following the Wadsworth Center's identification of a case of paralytic polio in Rockland County in July of 2022, Department officials quickly adapted the existing wastewater network-partnering with CDC and local entities-to test for poliovirus. These monitoring activities, now also based at the Wadsworth Center, enabled the State to assess communities for signs of circulating polio and prioritize the public health response to residents who are most at risk.

The Wadsworth Center was also critical in response efforts to the mpox outbreak. As one of only two laboratories in the State with the initial capability to detect mpox virus, the laboratory immediately performed testing during the first three months of the outbreak, until clinical and commercial laboratories implemented testing. The Wadsworth Center laboratories developed a specific test for the rapid identification of the type of mpox causing the outbreak, as well as a serology assay for the diagnosis and surveillance of mpox virus in New York State.