1095: Inside New York’s Next-Gen Wadsworth Lab

JOHN SHEEHAN: 

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, March 30, 2026. I'm John Sheehan, with news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Today, inside New York State's next-generation Wadsworth Lab, which will finish construction in 2030. Dr. James McDonald, commissioner of health for New York State, returns to the show to unpack the state's $1.7 billion investment in a new state-of-the-art laboratory, which will consolidate five aging facilities into one big campus in Albany. The new lab is designed to transform how New York detects, tracks, and responds to public health threats, from infectious diseases and wastewater surveillance to antimicrobial resistance and emerging pathogens.

Dr. James McDonald, welcome back to the show.

JAMES MCDONALD: 

It's good to be with you again, John.

SHEEHAN: 

So, Dr. McDonald, could you give us an overview of the new Wadsworth Center Laboratory?

MCDONALD: 

Yeah, so Wadsworth, our public health laboratory, is actually five different physical locations in the greater Albany area. What we're doing is spending $1.7 billion, with a B, to put them all under one 655,000-square-foot roof in a beautiful new building. And you know, John, one of the things about our five sites, one of our sites is actually an old farm, if you will. We still use it, do a lot of animal testing out there, rabies testing, that kind of thing. But it used to be that we, the New York State Department of Health, in 1902, was the largest producer of diphtheria antitoxin in the country. And so, we used to have a lot of horses here, but we don't anymore. But we do a lot of testing there, but it's going to get five sites into one, and going to be an environmentally friendly site as well. You know, a lot of old buildings chew up a lot of fossil fuels, not this one. It's going to be LEED Gold certified, so you know it's important that we take care of the environment.

SHEEHAN: 

Sure. And what are the advantages in a public health perspective to consolidating it into one space?

MCDONALD: 

Yeah, so one of the big advantages is where it's co-located. So, it's going to be on the Harriman Campus in downtown Albany, which probably doesn't mean much to your listeners, but it's the same physical location as the University of Albany. We've always enjoyed these strong partnerships with academia, but now we're right there, so it just makes that co-location easier. Like, for example, the New York State Department of Health publishes 300 peer-reviewed journal articles every year. Over 150 of them come from our Wadsworth colleagues. So, part of it's going to be the academic synergies that are going to come. Part of it, though, is when you put all of these brilliant scientists in one place, only good things happen. The other thing about my Wadsworth theme is I have a lot of principal investigators funded by the National Institutes of Health. A lot of researchers. I'm excited about putting all my researchers all in the same building as well. Only good things happen when researchers talk to each other.

SHEEHAN: 

I agree. And can you place the Wadsworth Lab sort of in the context of the greater New York Department of Health? What's its role going to be?

MCDONALD: 

Yeah, so really, when you think about the Wadsworth Public Health Laboratory, it is the premier public health laboratory on the planet. You know, Wadsworth is the national reference lab for anything and everything. There's things that we do at Wadsworth that even the CDC doesn't do. For example, the recent botulism outbreak that made the news, it was detected here in the testing we do. We can get your results rapidly. CDC could take weeks, but we can get it in a very rapid time. But we're, of course, part of the National Laboratory Response Network for chemical, for biological, for the Food Emergency Response Network, for the Influenza Reference Center. We're part of the National Emerging Infections Program. We're part of PulseNet. We're part of the Antimicrobial Resistance Network, you name it. I have someone at Wadsworth who does it. It's a team of all over 800 scientific professionals there. So, there's a lot that my Wadsworth partners do for me.

SHEEHAN: 

And you mentioned a couple, but what other public health tools, I'm thinking of things like polio detection or wastewater surveillance, what else will be improved thanks to this new consolidated lab?

MCDONALD: 

Yeah, we have a strong infectious disease presence. We already do this amazing wastewater surveillance program, and we're one of the few places that actually looks for polio in the water, because we've learned we need to look for polio in wastewater. But there's a lot of research we do in Mycobacterium, there's a lot of research we do in [fungi], a lot of research we do in antimicrobial resistance. And you know, I worry more about antimicrobial resistance and people having morbidity and mortality from resistant, you know, microbes out there. You know, what we're finding is the bacteria are so much smarter than the antibiotics, and they're winning that race right now. And that's why, you know, many, too many, many people are dying in the United States as a consequence of this, but you know, I'm very excited that I have researchers who are working in this space, but putting all those reachers in the same physical building is going to help us in the long run, and it's going to be a while before the building's finished. We broke ground, you know, last, gosh, six months ago, and they're still in the ground right now. You can actually see a building taking shape. It's a big building, but it won't be finished till 2030, so we still have a long way to go before this is done.

SHEEHAN: 

Around the corner, though.

MCDONALD: 

I like to think so. I want to be there when they do the grand opening, by the way.

SHEEHAN: 

And could you talk about how the design of the site may have been influenced by things like COVID, the last severe public health emergency?

MCDONALD: 

Yeah, there's a lot we learned from COVID. One of the things, though, was that you need to be flexible, like, so it's a modular construction, so we can move things around, you know. One of the things that's so critical about just public health is you've got to be flexible for the future, the technology does as well, you know. So, building it in a modular style, where we can actually just change and reconfigure if we need to, because one of the things that's certain about the future is that change is coming. It's not always predictable, but the change is coming. So, we need to be able to be flexible and adapt to that in the future. So, this includes just making sure the operational spaces are not just current, but can be modified over time, because we're building a building that we expect to last for over a century. And we're trying to foresee what the future could be, and not for nothing, it's going to be a nice building where there's a lot of natural light. I don't know, I think a lot of people just notice when you go to a public health lab, too many people working in the basement, too many people working in dark spaces. And one of the things that was really important to me was creature comforts for people, a place to eat, a place to drink, but also some natural sunlight for everybody when they're working.

SHEEHAN: 

I would go as far as to say that's not a creature comfort, that is a design feature that is meant to improve, you know, the lives of people who work there.

MCDONALD: 

It is, you know, and it's funny. The thing about old public health laboratories, not unique to New York, but so many of them were built below grade, and below grade, and below grade. Like one of my current buildings that we're going to be replacing with this has literally got five stories below ground, and you know, multiple elevators, and it's just an old, old building. And I think most people in public health can identify with aging infrastructure, and that's probably a way you can sense some of the excitement in my voice about something new and shiny, but also going to make people happy and do their jobs better.

SHEEHAN: 

You touched on this a little, Dr. McDonald, that it's going to be on the campus of the University of Albany. Can you talk a little bit more about those partnerships, especially with academia?

MCDONALD: 

Academic partnerships are vital for a lot of reasons, not just because we share knowledge, but we might be able to find new funding opportunities. And it's the same campus where artificial intelligence in New York State is exploding, and we use artificial intelligence in Wadsworth already. But there's really one of those things where the synergies aren't always obvious until you get some different people in the same room sometimes, and eating lunch across the same table, and it's those types of academic partnerships I'm excited about. And a lot of my team at Wadsworth are faculty at the College of Integrated Health Sciences as well, and I encourage that kind of thing. Part of what we're trying to do is not just share ideas, but you know, help recruit that next generation of tomorrow, whether they work for us or someone else. You know, really helping create a learning environment where we have so many smart people over here, and we have academic partnerships outside of University of Albany as well, and we're cultivating even more because we just see the synergy. You know, public health is really very much an academic profession, so there's wisdom sometimes in just making formal academic partnerships.

SHEEHAN: 

And in addition to synergy, and some of the benefits you described, such as getting your researchers all in one place. Are there other lessons that New York State could impart to other states when making these investments in a modern lab setting?

MCDONALD: 

Well, I think one of the hard lessons is perseverance in getting the funding. You know, it's $1.7 billion. It took years of advocacy to get this done, and a very supportive governor. You know, I'm fortunate to work for Governor Hochul, who's a champion of science and public health, but she really pushed for this to get done. And the legislature was very cooperative as well, but I think when you really think about one of the things we need desperately in our country right now, it's really after the pandemic, is embracing public health. And just as importantly, if not more so, is investing in public health, and you know, very thankful to the governor and legislature for seeing the $1.7 billion needed to do this, and right now, construction's under budget and on time, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

SHEEHAN: 

And finally, Dr. McDonald, the Department of Health in New York is turning 125 and you are ushering in a new facility at the turn of this decade, designed to go 100 years. Could you reflect a little on sort of the importance of permanence, particularly in an institution like state public health?

MCDONALD: 

Yeah, we are 125 years young, and we're a historic, venerable institution. New York State Department of Health has seen a lot, you know. In 1901, for the first 40 years, if you were the commissioner of the health department, you were fighting diphtheria, where one in five children died. Or polio, or one in 10 children died. You know, we've had a great deal of success with combating tuberculosis in New York state. We used to manage seven TB hospitals, but haven't done so since 1948. When I think about those historical achievements, where the lifespan in 1901 was 47, now it's almost 80. It really just reminds me that none of that happened by accident. A lot of it happened because public health professionals had a place to go to work, share their ideas, and get their work done, and often without fame or fortune, because if you're in public health, you find you do not acquire fame or fortune, you just get to have noble work and do noble work every day.

SHEEHAN: 

Well, Dr. James McDonald, thanks so much.

MCDONALD: 

Thank you, John. Always a pleasure. Enjoy your day.

SHEEHAN: 

Dr. James McDonald is the commissioner of health for New York State.

Public health preparedness is at a crossroads. In a new report from ASTHO, leaders from across the country warn that without sustained investment, the systems that protect us from outbreaks, disasters, and emerging threats are at risk. From detecting diseases to responding to outbreaks and safeguarding vulnerable communities, public health agencies are essential, but often underfunded and overlooked. Experts are calling for a bold reset, redefining core public health functions, building a clear national strategy, strengthening communications, and breaking the cycle of 'boom and bust' funding that leaves systems scrambling after every crisis. The goal is a more resilient, forward-looking public health system that doesn't just react to emergencies, but anticipates them. Find a link to the report in the show notes.

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This has been Public Health Review Morning Edition. I'm John Sheehan for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.