Wadsworth plans ‘antibiotic resistant’ disease center

State to contribute $22.4M in grants for monitoring network

The Department of Health’s famed Wadsworth Center is developing a high-tech surveillance network that will pinpoint the spread of so-called antibiotic resistant infectious diseases.

The state is putting $11.2 million toward the new project, which will start with a $4.7 million pilot program that would be rolled out eventually to hospitals statewide.

The program includes another $11.2 million grant to a private company called ILUM Health Solutions that would relocate from New Jersey to the Capital Region to help develop the network in partnership with Wadsworth and another company that specializes in antibiotic resistant — or AR — disease called Opgen Inc.

ILUM is a subsidiary of Merck & Co. and has 14 employees. The company would spend $48.7 million to relocate and expand here, creating 115 new jobs over five years. The relocation was announced late Friday.

The creation of the new AR monitoring network is part of a larger effort by the state to modernize Wadsworth and leverage its considerable stature in the world of medical research not only for public health benefits but also to grow the state’s biotech industry.

The state is currently planning a new $750 million campus for Wadsworth — either in Rensselaer County or the city of Albany — and the new AR monitoring network would be one of the new capabilities that would be grown at the new campus.

The state has not decided yet where to locate the new Wadsworth, which currently is spread out in several buildings in Albany and Guilderland with outdated and aging infrastructure and cramped offices.