Kerryl E. Greenwood-Quaintance, EdD, MS
Program Manager – Research Operations, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic Rochester
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Infectious Diseases Research Associate

1. How many years have you worked with the ARLG?

I began my role as Program Manager of the Antimicrobial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) Laboratory Center during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, so 5 years now. I also sit on the ARLG Diagnostics Subcommittee.

2. Please tell us about your role as the ARLG Laboratory Center Program Manager.

I have a strong background in clinical microbiology, leadership, and management that has well-positioned me to serve as the ARLG Laboratory Program Manager. While in this role, I have been involved in numerous ARLG studies including the completed SHREC study, the ongoing FAST, PHAGE, and Pneumonia Direct Pilot trials, and the upcoming MASTERMIND-RING study. I also contributed to the development of GENO-STELLAR, a tool to improve the care of patients affected by multi-drug resistant bacteria.

3. In your role with ARLG, what have been some of your key contributions or noteworthy projects?

I consider my greatest contribution to be the setup and development of the ARLG Laboratory Center physical biorepository. The ARLG biorepository is housed at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota at a state-of-the-art biospecimen processing and storage facility. Prior to my involvement with the ARLG Laboratory Center, the physical biorepository did not exist. The ARLG Biorepository was purely a virtual biorepository that also still exists.

As I believe the sharing of scientific information to be extremely important, I’ve contributed to six ARLG-associated publications to date with additional manuscripts currently in the review process. I was privileged to be involved in the manuscript “Considerations for the Use of Phage Therapy in Clinical Practice,” in conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Phage Therapy Taskforce. For this publication, the ARLG convened experts in phage therapy, clinical microbiology, infectious diseases, and pharmacology who worked with regulatory experts and NIAID to define questions relevant to phage therapy.

Why is the mission of ARLG important to you?

I have a long-standing interest in antimicrobial resistance and newly translated therapies and diagnostics for resistant bacteria. The ALRG provides a platform to conduct clinical research studies that interrogate the safety and efficacy of these new therapies and diagnostics. This is ultimately important for the improvement of patient care and outcomes.