October 5 – 9, 2025 • Providence, RI
FOOD SAFETY
The Culture Club: Inside the NERLC
By Allison Gennety, specialist, Food Safety
“ The APHL NERLC group and calls have been extremely beneficial for our laboratory … and I hope that the NERLC continues to provide support to public health laboratories.”
— NERLC Member
The National Enteric Reference Laboratory Community( NERLC), established by APHL and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ s( CDC’ s) Enteric Disease Laboratory Branch( EDLB), was created to foster collaboration, communication and consistency across public health laboratories working with enteric pathogens. As enteric diagnostics evolve, the need for a connected community to support isolation, identification and subtyping has grown.
The NERLC was created to meet that need. By bringing together laboratorians
across the country, the community offers space for real-time discussions about challenges, results and best practices at the enteric bench. Members work in laboratories of all sizes and capacities, but all share a commitment to accurate testing and a unified public health response. One of the primary goals of the NERLC is to empower public health laboratories to speak up and share experiences and help guide future priorities. It’ s not just about updates; it’ s about building a peer-led environment where laboratories can learn from one another and shape the conversation together. There are scheduled calls that discuss current outbreaks, interesting findings and updates to best practices. So far, the NERLC has hosted speakers from public health laboratories on topics such as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli( STEC) and Enteroinvasive E. coli( EIEC), as well as review of STEC, Shigella and Salmonella workflow documents aimed at improving efficiency and saving costs in public health laboratories. The community also keeps members up to date on the latest
Join Us!
Save the date for the next NERLC Call!
Scan the QR code to add the meeting to your calendar:
changes within EDLB and EQA testing results.
Whether you are a new staff member looking for support or a seasoned microbiologist with knowledge to share, your voice is welcome! We encourage all members to participate in calls, present interesting topics and cases, ask questions and provide feedback to help shape the group. To join the community, reach out to the APHL staff liaison Allison Gennety. Feel free to contact APHL and the CDC EDLB team with any interesting ideas to present on one of our next calls. The NERLC is built on the idea that no laboratory works alone, so join the culture club and be a part of the conversation. g
APHL Newborn Screening Symposium
2025
October 5 – 9, 2025 • Providence, RI
Early registration rate expires September 19.
www. aphl. org / NBS2025 # APHLNBS
26 LAB MATTERS Fall 2025 PublicHealthLabs @ APHL. org
APHL. org