The EQAPOL program is led by Thomas N. Denny, Professor of Medicine, Chief Operating Officer of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and Principal Investigator of the EQAPOL Central Laboratory- the Immunology and Virology Quality Assessment Center (IVQAC). Each EQAPOL program component is managed by the following investigators at Duke University, with support provided by external collaborators as indicated below:
- Ambrosia Garcia maintains the Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell (PBMC) cell bank and reagent repository.
- Guido Ferrari leads the enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISpot) assay External Quality Assurance (EQA) program and the EQA program for flow cytometry-based assays..
- Bhavna Hora (molecular characterization) and Todd DeMarco (viral cultures) lead the effort to establish and characterize unique clade-specific HIV virus panels, with support from Vitalant Research Institute (Michael Busch).
- Michael Busch, Vitalant Research Institute, and the EQAPOL team lead an EQA program for HIV-1 Incidence Assays.
- Andrew Macintyre leads the Luminex EQA program.
All EQAPOL components are being developed to operate using Good Clinical Laboratory Practices (GLCP) whenever possible. In addition, the ELISpot, Flow Cytometry, and Luminex EQA Programs are A2LA Accredited for ISO/IEC 17043 (certificate no. 3614.01). This effort is being directed by the Central Quality Assurance Unit (CQAU), which is led by Marcella Sarzotti-Kelsoe.
The EQAPOL programs are further supported by the EQAPOL Program Managers Miranda Carper, Cassie Porth, Darin Weed, and Catherine Oliver while statistical support is provided by DHVI Biostatisticians Wes Rountree, Marek Poniewierski, and Paul Hargarten. Administrative, financial, regulatory and facilities support is provided by established departments within DHVI.