Extramural Funding

CDC’s Division of Laboratory Sciences (DLS) supports public health laboratories with technical assistance and quality assurance services to improve testing, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. Public health laboratories conduct essential testing and monitoring to protect people and respond to health concerns at the federal, state, tribal, and local level.

DLS also provides funding support for public health laboratories through cooperative agreements. With CDC cooperative agreement funds, state public health laboratories are able to initiate, expand, or and improve environmental health and newborn screening laboratory programs with CDC cooperative agreement funds. State public health laboratories use have used CDC funds to purchase specialized instruments, develop and validate new test methods, and train and develop their workforce. DLS also partners with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) to strengthen public health laboratories through partnership, training, and quality improvement.