Our best wishes go out to Beth Evans, CCRA, on her retirement after 29 years at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). Since 2016, she has worked with ARLG as a lead CRA on many studies including  HABP/VABP, MDRO, SNAP, CRACKLE-2, POP, SHREC, and PHAGE.

“My passion was to work closely with site personnel, training them and guiding them through the day-to-day study activities,” Beth states. “I loved the details of each study and helping sites understand and follow the protocol. I was often called ‘Eagle Eyes’ for finding details others may have missed.”

In 2021, Beth channeled her passion and expertise into working on the PHAGE study with Drs. Robert “Chip” Schooley and Pranita Tamma to evaluate bacteriophages as a promising alternative to antibiotics. Her experience on the MDRO study as a site manager for the U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions was equally exciting as she traveled to provide study team training at multiple sites across China and Australia. “It was inspiring to see sites across the globe unite on one mission – the fight against antimicrobial resistance,” she states. “Given the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, contributing to research that combats this global health issue is very important to me. ARLG is a world leader in the prevention and treatment of infections that could one day directly benefit me or someone close to me.”

Now that Beth has retired, she has no intention of sitting still. She will direct her passion and energy into hiking, paddleboarding, and playing tennis. During the next two years, she hopes to hike the tallest point in every U.S. state. When she isn’t outdoors, Beth plans to spend more time playing piano and may also take banjo lessons.

The ARLG published a new supplement in the journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases titled “In Pursuit of Patient-Centered Antibacterial Trials: Listening to, Learning From, and Leveraging the Patient Perspective.” The supplement includes eight articles authored by ARLG members that describe several challenges and opportunities for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patient care and in clinical studies of infectious diseases.

Read the supplement.

Dr. Angelique E. Boutzoukas’ manuscript, “Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacterales in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients,” was selected as one of the year’s top transplant infectious diseases papers at the 2025 World Transplant Congress. Congratulations on this recognition of your important work, Dr. Boutzoukas!

Marc Bonten, MD, PhD, was recently appointed Vice-Dean of Education and Director of the Education Center (Research) at the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht, the Netherlands. In his role as CEO of the European Clinical Research Alliance for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Bonten collaborates with the ARLG to address the global antibacterial resistance crisis.

Read more about Dr. Bonten’s contributions to the field of antibacterial resistance.

ScholarGPS™ named Thomas Lodise, PharmD, PhD, to the top of their list, Highly Ranked Scholar – Prior 5 Years, for his publications on vancomycin. Authors who make the list of Highly Ranked Scholars™ must maintain high measures of publications, quality, and impact that place them at the top 0.05% or better of all scholar profiles on the platform. Reflecting on this significant achievement, Dr. Lodise said, “This was due, in larger part, to PROVIDE. I appreciate ARLG for supporting this study; it changed practice. It was a pleasure working with the team on the study. It was an incredible collaborative effort.”

Dr. Lodise is the Pharmacokinetic Lead for ARLG and protocol PI on the OPTIMIZE-GNI study. He also shares his expertise as a member of several ARLG committees. View Dr. Lodise’s ScholarGPS profile to learn more about his vital work in antibiotic medications.

Please join us in extending our heartfelt gratitude to Deborah Hopkins, MA, AAS, CMA (AAMA), CCT, for 10 years of dedication to ARLG research at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). In July, Deborah retired from her role as a Clinical Trials Coordinator II where she provided vital study team, site management, monitoring, and regulatory support. From study start-up through close-out, her contributions have made a valuable impact on countless research projects over the past decade. In that time, she has collaborated to share her knowledge and expertise with study teams across the U.S. and in countries around the world including China, Israel, and Spain.

Looking back over her career, Deborah is proud of her commitment to ARLG’s mission and considers every study she worked on to be significant. “I believe in the sharing of knowledge across the globe and improving health care for everyone,” she states.

In retirement, Deborah looks forward to visiting the beach and mountains and spending more time with her family and grandchildren. She also plans to continue sharing her knowledge with others by volunteering as a teacher and pursuing her PhD in theology.

For nearly three decades, Brenda Mickley has been a cornerstone of grant administration at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), bringing expertise, strategic insight, and unwavering commitment to advancing public health. She played a pivotal role in shaping and supporting major research initiatives as part of her role with Grants & Proposal Services.

Brenda’s journey with ARLG began at its inception. She collaborated closely with the team on the original application that launched the program and helped to lay the foundation for ARLG. From there, Brenda was instrumental in the competitive renewal process, ensuring the continuity and growth of ARLG’s mission.

In recognition of her 29 years of service, Brenda received the Rob Califf Excellence in Service Award from the DCRI to honor her achievements and support of programs designed to improve health around the world. The ARLG extends its heartfelt gratitude to Brenda for her valuable contributions over the years. We wish her a well-deserved and enjoyable retirement.

A June Magnify Magazine article titled “A Fighting Chance Against Infection” featured a profile on Tori Kinamon, ARLG Innovations Working Group member and MD Candidate at the Duke University School of Medicine.

In the article, Kinamon, a former gymnast who acquired a severe Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection during her freshman year of college at Brown University, detailed how that traumatic experience changed her perspective and inspired her to pursue a career in medicine.

As a medical student at Duke, Kinamon reached out to ARLG co-principal investigator, renowned researcher in S. aureus, and Florence McAlister Distinguished Professor of Medicine Dr. Vance Fowler, expressing her interest in infectious diseases research.

Kinamon has since authored multiple publications for scientific journals, participated in an ARLG panel discussion and an infectious disease conference in Dublin, Ireland, and was recently selected for an FDA Antibacterial Drug Resistance (DOOR) Fellowship – a competitive opportunity offered through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). The fellowship evaluates ordinal endpoints using ARLG’s Desirability of Outcome Ranking (DOOR) approach for anti-infective clinical trials. DOOR is an innovative approach used in clinical trials to evaluate the global benefits and risks of an intervention.

Kinamon’s personal experience with a drug-resistant infection motivates her commitment to a patient-centered approach to care and the development of innovative treatments and preventive measures, including an infection prevention protocol for athletes, aiming to reduce the risk of infections like MRSA in athletic settings.

Kinamon emphasizes the importance of antibacterial research and development in the face of increasing rates of antibacterial resistance. She credits her fortunate access to an effective treatment for the positive outcome of her infection and expresses a passionate desire to provide the same opportunities for patients in the future.

“I don’t want to look a patient in the eye, or their family in the eye, and tell them they have an infection that we can’t treat. I want patients to have the outcome I was lucky enough to have,” Kinamon said.

Read Kinamon’s full profile for Magnify Magazine here.

An article published in the March 2023 issue of JAMA, “As Superbugs Flourish, Bacteriophage Therapy Recaptures Researchers’ Interest,” features research and input from a variety of infectious diseases experts including commentary from ARLG’s Laboratory Center Director, Robin Patel, MD and ARLG investigator, Robert Schooley, MD. The article, which discusses the development of phage therapy from the 1915 discovery of bacteriophages to now, also references ARLG’s PHAGE Study and the ARLG Phage Taskforce report, “Considerations for the Use of Phage Therapy in Clinical Practice.”

The JAMA article details how the effectiveness of phages—bacteria-infecting viruses—has been questioned since penicillin was found to be a safe, effective treatment for bacterial infections. Since antimicrobial resistance continues to grow, phage therapy is gaining attention as a potential solution to drug-resistant bacterial infections. Between 2016 and 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) quadrupled funding for phage research to $160 million.

When the NIH commissioned the ARLG Phage Taskforce to conduct its evidence review of literature on phage therapy, the final report found “severe gaps” in evidence to support its use in clinical settings. Similar to antibiotics, bacteriophages selectively infect and kill bacterial cells, but ARLG’s report shows the need for more studies to determine the safety and efficacy of phage therapy before physicians can routinely use it in clinical care.

JAMA interviewed Dr. Robin Patel, Director of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, ARLG’s Laboratory Center Director, and senior author of ARLG’s report for her input. She stated, “There are still so many questions. As a scientist, that excites me—but as a clinician…we don’t have an answer to whether phage therapy works.”

The article covers the NIH’s effort to address questions about the viability of phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics by funding multiple clinical trials to evaluate safety and effectiveness. It highlights the efforts of many researchers including Dr. Robert Schooley, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), co-founder of the UCSD Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH), and ARLG investigator. JAMA touches on Dr. Schooley’s work as the co-principal investigator for ARLG’s PHAGE Trial, which is currently enrolling participants to take part in research on intravenous phage therapy for adults with cystic fibrosis.

Read the full article in JAMA