Research

Administrative History

The Wadsworth Center of the Department of Health combines basic and applied research and education in biomedical and environmental sciences with a public health mission of clinical and environmental testing and quality assurance. Reputed to be the most comprehensive public health lab in the United States, the center responds to present and emerging public health threats; develops and applies the most advanced technologies and methods to ensure rapid, accurate detection of disease; and through licensure and training, assures high quality performance of clinical and environmental labs and tissue banks serving New York residents. The center has six divisions: Environmental Disease Prevention, Genetic Disorders, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Medicine, Laboratory Quality Certification, and Laboratory Operations. The center's investigations focus on issues including the method of transmission of HIV, the relationship between environmental toxicants and disease, and the regulation of gene expression in model organisms.

Chapter 559 of the Laws of 1913 granted the commissioner of health power to establish laboratories, which were in turn given a mandate to undertake routine examinations and analysis, as well as original research in matters affecting public health. Formerly the Laboratory of the New York State Department of Health, the center was renamed in honor of Augustus B. Wadsworth, first director of the laboratory, in 1984.