SUNY Global Health Institute and Wadsworth Center to create the NYS Global Health Interface Platform

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The State University of New York (SUNY) Global Health Institute (GHI) and the New York State Department of Health today announced a new partnership between the department’s Wadsworth Center and GHI.

The newly formed alliance will strengthen New York State’s ability to respond to global public health threats while providing workforce training opportunities for future public health professionals.

“The new collaboration with Wadsworth Center will create novel research opportunities for faculty at UB and other GHI campuses and add to the innovation that can be proposed in grant applications,” said Gene Morse, PharmD, co-director of the SUNY GHI, director of the Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences (CIGBS) at the University at Buffalo and a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “Students will also benefit by engaging in research programs that have local and global applications.”

Wadsworth Center is a science-based laboratory community that is committed to protecting and improving the health of New Yorkers through laboratory analysis, investigations and research, as well as laboratory certification and educational programs. The center is also a collaborating unit of the University at Albany School of Public Health and a global leader in public health research and translational science.

GHI’s administrative offices are located at UB and at the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn. It is supported through in-kind and non-sponsored funding sources.

“This partnership brings together the country’s premier public health laboratory with our nation’s largest public university system and its global partner countries,” said James McDonald, the state health commissioner. “By connecting with UB’s public health network across the world, we can further prepare for and prevent potential risks to public health before they reach New York State.”

The partnership creates an innovative state global health interface platform that will bring together public health laboratories and the SUNY-GHI centers to create a novel platform for interaction that will foster innovative research, education and communications programs, Morse said. The platform will also provide additional opportunities for UB and GHI faculty and students to connect on the state’s public health laboratory initiatives and research programs.

Working toward UN Sustainable Development Goals

“In addition, the partnership will lead to additional cross-campus grant applications that will be strengthened by the participation of the Wadsworth Center,” Morse said. “I feel honored to represent UB in this endeavor at a time when public health threats are becoming more severe across the globe.”

CIGBS employs a highly innovative model that addresses the challenges of linking innovative research with strategies for attaining the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is providing a foundation for this through global health projects in Africa and the Caribbean. It works in tandem with several partner groups including the GHI and the Global Virus Network.

The new Wadsworth partnership includes virtual meetings for its constituents this fall and plans are in place to feature the partnership at SUNY’s annual conference in March. It will bring together stakeholders from the SUNY academic health centers and other campuses, allowing attendees to develop plans for grant applications and education initiatives. The annual conference includes sessions that focus on the UN’s sustainable development goals and strategies for advancing the mission of the GHI.

“This initiative will create new opportunities for linking the world-renowned public health environment in New York State with global partners, while helping us to train the next generation of public health scientists,” said Leonard Peruski, PhD, director of the Wadsworth Center.

Jack DeHovitz, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and co-director of SUNY GHI at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, said, “Our annual conference at the SUNY Global Center provides an outstanding venue that is at the intersection of New York State and the United Nations and promotes global collaboration.”

About the Wadsworth Center

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 many other critical responsibilities. Since its origins 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 has been critical to the state’s ability to track and assess COVID-19 as well as other communicable diseases including polio and monkeypox (Mpox). The center has more than 50 principal investigators and more than 700 staff in five sites across the greater Albany metropolitan area. The center has numerous public health programs, a broad array of applied and basic research areas, regulatory programs, numerous education and training initiatives and extramural funding to support research.

About SUNY Global Health Institute

The SUNY GHI was created to provide an organizational infrastructure for faculty and students across SUNY campuses and their global partners to have access to all programs and stimulate new research initiatives within a seamless network. SUNY GHI, in turn, facilitates communications within a systemwide institute that is well positioned to compete for global health grants and conduct innovative education and service programs across multi-campus and multi-country projects. An example of these type of projects is the NIH-funded Global Infectious Diseases Research Training program from the Fogarty International Center. This grant includes leading infectious diseases researchers from UB, Upstate Medical University, University at Albany and Downstate Health Sciences University and the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica and St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad.