Lab Culture

The Biosafety Peer Network (aka the Visiting Biosafety Official Program) links US local, state, and territorial public health laboratories with US-affiliated Pacific Island laboratories to facilitate mentoring and information sharing among biosafety officials and officers. The exchange is intended to foster a collaborative community, advance biosafety and biosecurity in laboratories, and ultimately improve public health laboratory biosafety and biosecurity across the US. So what exactly does the Biosafety Peer Network do? Three members of this network -- Rebecca Sciulli (Hawaii), Paul Fox (Hawaii) and Anne Marie Santos (Guam) sat down for a conversation about their work.

Photo: Paul Fox (left) and Rebecca Sciulli (center) giving Anne Marie Santos (right) a tour of the Hawaii Laboratories Division facility to showcase their biosafety practices, as part of the Peer Network program.

Links

Biosafety Peer Network Program Application

Laboratory Biosafety & Biosecurity Resources

Biosafety & Biosecurity Training

Four years ago, as APHL joined with partners to celebrate the 50th anniversary of routine newborn screening in the United States, newborn screening hit more closely for APHL staff than it ever had before. Michelle Forman, manager of media and Lab Culture host, received a text that her new niece, Sloane, had a positive newborn screen. Her results were out of range for PKU. In this episode, Michelle interviews Sloane's mom, Judith Forman, about that experience.

• Newborn Screening Gets Personal: My Niece's Positive Screen
• Classic Phenylketonuria (PKU)
• Benign Hyperphenylalaninemia (Hyper-Phe)
• APHL's Newborn Screening & Genetics Program
• What is newborn screening? FAQs

PulseNet revolutionized foodborne outbreak detection in the United States. What exactly is it? How did it get started? Why was it so significant? And what does the future of foodborne outbreak detection look like? Brian Sauders, molecular microbiologist at the NY State Department of Agriculture and Markets, and Shari Shea, director of food safety at APHL, answer these questions and more.

Links:

What is PulseNet?

About PulseNet (CDC)

PulseNet success stories

20 years of PulseNet: Preventing thousands of illnesses and saving millions of dollars (cost-benefit analysis)

Awards PulseNet has received

Innovations in American Government Award

CBS News article on PulseNet launch including quotes from Al Gore

1993 Jack in the Box outbreak

Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga Infections Associated with a Raw Scraped Ground Tuna Product

Laboratory Response Network (LRN)

New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Division of Food Laboratory

Shari Shea on Twitter

APHL's Food Safety Program

APHL-CDC Infectious Diseases Laboratory Fellowship

APHL was an official and proud partner of the March for Science! We spoke with two people who joined us on Saturday, April 22 about why they were marching for science.

Links:

APHL's March for Science photo album

Official March for Science website

Everything you need for Lab Week 2017

APHL is now on Instagram!

On March 6, a small group of APHL members and our policy staff visited House and Senate offices as part of our annual Hill Day. Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL's senior director of public policy, interviewed the group following their meetings to get their immediate thoughts.

Links:

ELC Program: Essential Funding for Public Health Lab Response

Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity fact sheet

APHL Advocacy Priorities

Hill Day group:

Chris Whelen – laboratory director, Hawaii Department of Health State Laboratories Division

Sara Vetter – manager, Infectious Disease Laboratory, Minnesota Department of Health Public Health Laboratory

Jennifer Rakeman – assistant commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Denise Toney – director, Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services

Peter Kyriacopoulos – senior director of public policy, APHL

Celia Hagan – manager of public policy, APHL

Nisha Quasba – public policy intern, APHL

Did you know that the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) includes critical public health funding? What would the repeal of the ACA mean for public health? Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL's senior director of public policy, talks about the CDC-managed Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) program, a source of crosscutting support for public health laboratories funded under the ACA through the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF).

Links:

ELC Program: Essential Funding for Public Health Lab Response (APHL.org)

Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) Cooperative Agreement (CDC.gov)

Critical Public Health Fund Would Be Lost With ACA Repeal

Find your State or Territorial Health Official

Find your US Senators

Find your US Representative

Peter Kyriacopoulos on Twitter

APHL Blog

@APHL on Twitter

APHL on Facebook

APHL.org