member spotlight

MA SPHL 1894 MA SPHL Present

Bacteriologist Taryn Redding accessions specimens for GC / Chlamydia testing

by Nancy Maddox, MPH, writer

Michael Pentella, PhD, head of the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory joined the lab in 2013. However, his view of The Bay State is seen through the prism of a long-time laboratory scientist. He said,“ We have a wonderful microbiology community here,” encompassing Boston Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess, Boston Children’ s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, the Broad Institute, the Lincoln Institute and myriad other public health partners.

We continue to find ways to strengthen communication and collaboration with our epidemiologists as a key response partner. Despite a tight fiscal environment, the lab and Epidemiology have been working together very diligently to respond to the ongoing Zika outbreak.

– Sandra Smole, PhD

Pentella points out that New England was the first part of the country to form its own laboratory directors’ group, the Northeast Environmental and Public Health Laboratory Directors( NEEPHLD), which has been active since the 1970s. He said,“ It’ s really nice to see that group take on projects that benefit everyone in the region,” such as joint continuity of operations planning, shared analytical services and coordinated grant submissions.

Pentella also notes that Massachusetts has some distinct public health challenges. Although the state has no Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and only a“ very small population” of Aedes albopictus— meaning residents are at low risk for Zika virus and other illnesses transmitted by these disease vectors— there is a great deal of travel by residents to areas where these diseases are endemic. Thus, the laboratory must be prepared to test for them. Sandra Smole, PhD, who directs the laboratory’ s molecular biology and virology division, said,

“ Our laboratory Zika experience is a combination of elements of the white powder BT response, the 2009 H1N1 response and Ebola all rolled into one: it is exceedingly complex and evolving, and has required implementation of multiple new assays across three different internal labs, coupled with close lab and epi coordination... all with direct patient impact.” While local Zika transmission is unlikely, the state has a healthy population of Culiseta melanura mosquitoes and has seen a small number of cases of the eastern equine encephalitis virus they transmit.

Although The Bay State has just 6.8 million residents, its busy air traffic— with over 5.5 million international passengers at Boston Logan Airport in 2015— translates into increased risk for other exotic illnesses as well.“ We receive travelers from all over the world, coming from places with endemic diseases we don’ t normally experience here,” said Pentella. Thus, his goal for the public health laboratory is to stay on the“ cutting edge” of test technology for a wide range of infectious pathogens:“ If we detect them early, we can keep them from spreading.”

Facility

The laboratory’ s long history begins in 1894, when it was just the second state public health laboratory established in the United States. In 1947 it moved from more modest housing to its current campus in Jamaica Plain, just six miles from downtown Boston, six miles from the Atlantic Coast and overlooking the beautiful 265-acre Arnold Arboretum. The initial Jamaica Plain laboratory facility was the former mansion home of businessmanphilanthropist Benjamin Bussey. It sat not far from the Bussey Institute, Harvard University’ s first undergraduate school of agriculture and horticulture. In the early 1970s, the state built a new laboratory facility— an eight-story, 189,000-square-foot, concrete structure in the brawny style of Danish Brutalism— adjacent to the mansion. The combined Massachusetts Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences remain there today, although the site is now part of the UMASS medical school campus. The old Bussey Institute stables— once home to horses used for production of diphtheria antitoxin— were refurbished to serve as office space for state epidemiologists. In 2008, the building was christened the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in honor of Harvard Medical School’ s first African American professor, who developed a simple, highly accurate test for syphilis.

Today, Pentella and his staff are readying for a“ complete, wall-to-wall renovation” of the current building.“ We’ re trying to think 30 years into the future,” he said. The state has allocated $ 82.7 million for the project, which is still in the early planning stage.