Lab Matters Spring 2021 | Page 31

FELLOWS

Journal of Public Health Management and Practice

Creating a Blueprint for the Future : Lessons Learned From Public Health Laboratories in the COVID-19 Response

by Heather Roney , MA , manager , Fellowships

MMWR

Infants with Congenital Disorders Identified Through Newborn Screening — United States , 2015 – 2017

Newborn Screening Practices and Alpha- Thalassemia Detection — United States , 2016

One Health Outlook

Optimizing open data to support one health : best practices to ensure interoperability of genomic data from bacterial pathogens

PLOS ONE

Newborn Screening Timeliness Quality Improvement Initiative : Impact of National Recommendations and Data Repository

Public Health Reports

Regional Consortia : A Framework for Public Health Laboratory Collaboration and Service Sharing

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

A Comparison of US Clinical Laboratory Chlamydia and Gonorrhea Testing Practices Prior to and Following the 2014 CDC Testing Recommendations

Highlights From the 2019 HIV Diagnostics Conference : Optimizing Testing for HIV , STIs and HCV

Three Years of Shared Service HIV Nucleic Acid Testing for Public Health Laboratories : Worthwhile for HIV-1 but Not for HIV-2

Virus Research

Genetic Characterization of Mumps Viruses Associated with the Resurgence of Mumps in the United States : 2015-2017 n

Applications to APHL ’ s 2021-2022 Antimicrobial Resistance , Bioinformatics , Infectious Diseases , and Newborn Screening Fellowship Programs are currently under review . APHL received a record number of host lab applications for the Bioinformatics program . Incoming fellows will begin their assignments in APHL and CDC public health laboratories in the summer and fall .

Newborn Screening Fellows are immersed in current projects and helping with challenges that their programs are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic . Projects include finding ways to reuse pipette tips due to severe shortages , implementing cloud solutions to circumvent barriers to on-site genomic data analysis , training on a new MySEQ machine for research and development , publishing the findings of a Dallas COVID-19 reinfection case for education , and optimizing workflows by adding GAG analysis to the screening of mucopolysaccharidosis ( MPS-1 ).

COVID-19 Response Fellows continue to contribute invaluable support to pandemic response efforts in public health laboratories . Fellows evaluated antigen tests in community testing sites , contributed to the verification of assays , developed standard operating procedures and validation protocols , and helped cultivate SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care testing training materials .

The APHL-CDC COVID-19 Laboratory Associate Program continues to grow . Over 30 associates are currently assigned to local and state public health laboratories . APHL expects to extend the program into 2022 .

APHL congratulates outgoing fellows who continue to advance in their careers . Two fellows were accepted into ASM Committee for Postgraduate Educational Programs ( CPEP ) fellowships , which pave the way to laboratory director positions . Dr . Mondraya Howard , a 2019 Antimicrobial Resistance Fellow based at the Maryland Public Health Laboratory , was accepted into the Medical and Public Health Laboratory Microbiology CPEP Fellowship at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry . Dr . June Chan , a 2019 Antimicrobial Resistance Fellow based at the Wadsworth Center , was accepted into the Clinical Microbiology CPEP fellowship at the University of California , Los Angeles . Dr . Howard and Dr . Chan will start their new appointments in July 2021 . n

Mondraya Howard June Chan