Stay up to date with Monkeypox testing information at the WSLH on our Monkeypox-2022 web page.

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations for the July 4th holiday.

As always, if you have an off-hours emergency, please call the WSLH Emergency Pager at 608-263-3280.

 

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations due to the observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

The table below lists the hours of operations for our Clinical Specimen Receiving departments.

As always, if you have an off-hours emergency, please call the WSLH Emergency Pager at 608-263-3280.

 

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is one of six wastewater-based epidemiology centers of excellence announced today by Ceres Nanosciences (Ceres).

The Centers of Excellence program is supported by an $8.2 million award given to Ceres from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) initiative.

Ceres news release 

WSLH staff made major contributions to two recently released Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) publications.

Senior Scientist Martin Shafer provided a large portion of the content to APHL’s “SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance Testing Guide for Public Health Laboratories”. Shafer said his contributions were informed by the WSLH COVID Wastewater Surveillance Team.

He said the APHL guide is “…quite a seminal document that public health labs across the country will reference in building their wastewater surveillance programs”.

 

WI Clinical Laboratory Network (WCLN) Coordinator Erin Bowles contributed to APHL’s “Public Health Laboratory Outreach Model Practices for Infectious Disease Programs”.

The publication is a compilation of information gathered from nine interviews with public health laboratories that have sustained an outreach program focused on infectious diseases and incorporates strategies to address the challenges surrounding resource limitations.

WSLH Communicable Disease Division Director Dr. Allen Bateman was interviewed and quoted for the lead Association of Public Health Laboratories Spring 2022 Lab Matters article about balancing SARS-CoV-2 testing with other necessary infectious disease testing.

“To All the Other Pathogens: We’re Still Testing”

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health publishes the magazine Quarterly.

The latest issue has two stories highlighting Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene work in Communicable Disease and in Genetics.

 

Survey of the Health of Wisconsin Pivots to Collect Valuable Statewide COVID-19 Data 

 

Undiagnosed Genetic Disease Program and Clinic Catalyze Advances in Genomics and Personalized Medicine

 

Heather Barkholtz, assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy and the WSLH Forensic Toxicology section, was awarded a $270,000+ grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The research project is entitled Illuminating the Dark: Molecular Networking as a Novel Psychoactive Substance Identification Strategy.

According to Dr. Barkholtz –

“Illicit use of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) such as ‘spice’ and ‘bath salts’ have become increasingly popular among drug users. When a NPS emerges, its chemical structure is not known to forensic toxicologists seeking to detect them in impaired drivers, drug-facilitated crimes, overdose incidents, etc. When these NPS go undetected in forensic laboratories, public health, law enforcement, and medical professionals do not have complete information from which to make decisions.

“This project aims to use a new mass spectrometry data analysis technique called the Global Natural Product Social (GNPS) Molecular Networking interactive online data curation and analysis infrastructure to enable rapid identification of emerging NPS.

“The GNPS platform can be thought of as a dynamic, accessible, living toolkit and database for identification of previously unknown chemical structures in high-resolution mass spectrometry data. This work will demonstrate GNPS as a solution to high-resolution challenges in mass spectrometry data analysis and identification of NPS faced by the forensic community.”

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations due to the observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.

The table below lists the hours of operations for our Clinical Specimen Receiving departments.

As always, if you have an off-hours emergency, please call the WSLH Emergency Pager at 608-263-3280.

 

The photographers for UW Communications chose their favorite photos of 2021 and Bryce Richter’s photo below of WisCon Consultant Danica Harrier and Program Manager Ernie Stracener made the cut.

In the photo Danica and Ernie are demonstrating an N95 respirator fit testing kit WisCon developed for long-term care facilities to use during the pandemic.