member spotlight

by Nancy Maddox, MPH, writer

From the beginning, the county has had a symbiotic relationship with its neighbor on the other side of San Francisco Bay. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Alameda County was a ferry and trolley car suburb of“ Fog City.” Since 1933, after the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge linked the two jurisdictions, commuters can travel back and forth entirely by car or bus( or by underwater tube since 1967). Today, said Mark Pandori, PhD, HCLD( ABB), director of the Alameda County Public Health Laboratory, the county has its own, multi-faceted identity, although it remains linked to San Francisco. Sky high housing prices, for example, are driving many San Franciscans into East Bay, as the urban area immediately east of San Francisco Bay is known. Rents in Oakland— Alameda County’ s county seat and the largest East Bay city— are rising faster than anywhere else in the country. Yet even with the rising cost of living, Alameda County’ s population is“ perhaps more diverse than any other Bay Area county,” said Pandori, with large African-American, Asian, Latino and LGBTQ communities. The presence of the University of California( UC) at Berkeley, the prestigious flagship campus of the UC system, adds to the mix.

What’ s interesting is beyond the heavily urbanized zone, we have a huge rural zone east of the Oakland Hills.

Pandori said this diverse and peripatetic population of about 1.5 million makes TB, HIV and sexually transmitted disease( STD) testing priorities for the public health laboratory.“ But what’ s interesting,” he said,“ is that beyond the heavily urbanized zone, we have a huge rural zone east of the Oakland Hills. There’ s quite a lot of rabies out there— recently, all in bats— and some Lymecontaining ticks in the southern end of the county.” The laboratory tests for the rabies and speciates the ticks. The rural zone— easily over half of Alameda County’ s 821-square-mile area— is also home to a budding wine industry and, importantly, a number of aquifers, wells, lakes and streams. Testing these local waters, plus swimming pool water, supplies a major portion of the laboratory’ s business.

When Pandori assumed the directorship of the county’ s public health laboratory, he came with a“ technological vision” that skewed toward advanced molecular testing. Almost three years later, much of that vision has been realized, with a heavy laboratory emphasis on PCR testing and whole genome sequencing( WGS).

Facility

The Alameda County Public Health Laboratory occupies one of the most distinctive laboratory facilities in the country— a three-story concrete, steel and glass edifice outfitted with an exoskeleton of latticework festooned with“ gigantic shock absorbers,” which encircle the building. The unusual structure is the most visible sign of the subterranean Hayward Fault line that lies a mere 500 yards from the laboratory.

Alameda County Public Health Laboratory

The building was erected in 2014 in a“ pretty wooded glade” at the base of the Oakland Hills, just“ a stone’ s throw away” from the acclaimed Oakland Zoo and even nearer to Interstate 580, a major freeway traversing northern California. The county coroner takes up the first floor; the public health laboratory, the second floor; and the country crime lab, the third floor. Because of the crime lab, said Pandori, the security is“ absolutely through the roof,” requiring entry through four separate cardkey-locked doors just to reach the public health laboratory. Once inside, however, visitors find the 13,000-square-foot facility has all the bells and whistles a modern public health laboratory demands, including one BSL-3 suite( currently certified as 2 +). The laboratory, said Pandori, is“ gorgeous.”

Director

Pandori was born in Philadelphia, but raised mostly in San Jose, CA. He earned a BS in genetics from UC – Berkeley, and then decamped to Boston University, where he developed HIV assays for a year. After that stint, Pandori returned to the West Coast, earning a PhD in biomedical sciences from UC-San Diego under the tutelage of John Guatelli, MD, and Douglas Richman, MD, two stars of the HIV research community. A post-doctoral fellowship with Harvard Medical School took him back to the East Coast, where he conducted viral engineering for gene therapy at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital for the medical school. Pandori then worked as a post-doc and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School for six years, before another cross-country trip to California, where, in 2005, he became chief microbiologist for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, working under the direction of Sally Liska, DrPH. In 2009, he gained a joint position as associate clinical professor of laboratory medicine at UC-San Francisco. And in 2010, after Liska’ s retirement, he assumed the position of laboratory director. The twin lures of a brand new laboratory and the opportunity to work with an esteemed colleague, Erica Pan, MD, drew him to his current post in the Alameda County Department of Public Health Laboratory in mid-2014.

Staff

In addition to Pandori, the laboratory employs 10 people, including five full time microbiologists( one at the PhD level), a laboratory supervisor( who is also a DVM), two laboratory technicians and two administrators. Altogether, seven of the staff members are state-certified public health microbiologists. There is currently one open microbiology position.

Revenue

The laboratory’ s revenue comes from a mix of county general funds, grants and billed laboratory tests.