John Tamerius graduated from the Univ. of Washington with a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology.   He performed graduate and postdoctoral research in tumor immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center before joining the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation (San Diego) as a Research Associate in the Dept. of Molecular Immunology; here he studied inflammation, the complement system, and was a National Arthritis Fellow.  He co-founded Cytotech where he led the development of 9 FDA-cleared products, approx. 100 research products and five research-use-only kits for studies of immune complexes, inflammation, and the complement system.

That company was acquired by Quidel Corporation in 1989, where during his on-going tenure there, he has held several important leadership roles, including VP of R&D, General Manager of Quidel’s northern California division, and SrVP of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs.  He now serves as SrVP of Strategic & External Affairs.  While head of R&D he was in charge of the development of the first CLIA-waived, lateral flow test for influenza (QuickVue).

More recently, he has worked closely with the teams that have developed several rapid antigen detection tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus–the most recent of which is the QuickVue At-home OTC COVID-19 Assay.