School Notes: School of Public Health
January/February 2023

YSPH joins center for genomics research

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health selected the Yale School of Public Health and five other partners to make up its new Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence, one of five such centers recently launched by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With $25 million in funding over five years, the center’s goal will be to improve technologies and coordinated processes for systematically monitoring infectious diseases and emerging variants, enabling the US to better prevent and respond to outbreaks.

New testing method could make tuberculosis diagnosis easier

In a promising new study, a multinational team of researchers, including scientists from the Yale School of Public Health, may have found another way to identify tuberculosis. Rather than having patients cough up a sputum sample from their lungs, the new test asks patients to spit into a cup, then loads the saliva into a commercially available testing cartridge. The researchers found that the cartridge can detect the bacteria that causes TB in saliva, even though it was designed for testing sputum. If additional studies confirm the method is reliable, the novel process could simplify widespread tuberculosis screening.

Addressing New Haven gun violence

The Yale Schools of Public Health and Medicine are teaming up with the Urban League of Southern Connecticut and local nonprofit and government leaders to see if an infusion of community programs and interventions in New Haven can mitigate systemic racism and reduce gun violence in the city.

Every year for the next three years, families in six primarily Black and Hispanic/Latino New Haven neighborhoods will gain access to a wide range of intervention programs—including tailored financial education and housing assistance, in an effort to counteract what prior research has shown to be a precursor to gun violence: systemic racism.