LSU Health New Orleans Precision Medicine Lab Earns CAP Accreditation

January 21, 2022

The Precision Medicine Laboratory at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine has been fully accredited by the College of American Pathologists.

“I believe that few such molecular laboratories formed during the COVID pandemic possess this accreditation, which is a seal of quality,” notes Dr. Gordon Love, LSU Health New Orleans Professor and Chair of Pathology.

The laboratory, conceived to bring Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies to the clinical arena, was built and launched over the past two years. The $2 million laboratory is a collaboration of the Departments of Pathology and Genetics.

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Co-Directed by Dr. Love and Lucio Miele, MD, PHD, Professor and Chair of Genetics, LSU Health New Orleans’ Precision Medicine Laboratory has been sequencing positive coronavirus patient samples to determine what strains of the virus are circulating in the New Orleans area. The lab was the first to identify the Delta variant in New Orleans and one of the first to find the Omicron variant in the area.

“LSU Health New Orleans’ Precision Medicine Laboratory is one of the few accredited laboratories doing this work,” Dr. Miele relates. “That’s the only way to really keep track of what the virus is doing.”

According to the College of American Pathologists, CAP Laboratory Accreditation helps laboratories maintain the accuracy of test results and ensure accurate patient diagnosis; meet required standards from CLIA, FDA and OSHA. CAP requirements commonly exceed the standards, bolstering patient care and safety; manage rapidly evolving changes in laboratory medicine and technology; exchange ideas and best practices among pathology and laboratory medicine peers; and offer professional development and learning opportunities for laboratory staff.

“We are very proud of this validation of the high quality of our Precision Medicine Laboratory,” says Dt. Steve Nelson, LSU Health New Orleans Interim Chancellor. “The real-time information our faculty and staff are providing about SARS-CoV-2 is invaluable in the pandemic response.”

Judy Crabtree, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics, is the lab’s Scientific and Education Director, and Associate Professor of Pathology Grace Athas, PhD, CLS, is the Operations Director.

“The capabilities of this laboratory will carry us into the future as well,” adds Dr. Richard DiCarlo, Interim Dean of LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. “We are well-positioned to move into cancer genomics also.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans (LSU Health New Orleans) educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with branch campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous annual economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO, or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.

The College of American Pathologists (CAP), the leading organization of board-certified pathologists, serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine worldwide.