Year-round clinical responsibilities providing or overseeing veterinary care for research animals of several species located on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Rodent and large animal veterinary care include the medical and surgical services for animals with both spontaneous and protocol-related diseases, consultation with laboratories about clinical health issues within their colony, monitoring of rodent colony health in conjunction with the quality assurance group, performing surgery in a research capacity on a for-fee basis, and training of the ULAR husbandry staff.
The veterinary regulatory role consists of protocol review, working with research groups to develop IACUC-approved protocols, working with the IACUC on clinical and compliance issues, and the development of SOPs and Guidelines for both ULAR and the IACUC. Responsible for training residents, as well as fourth-year veterinary or shadowing students, on the medical, surgical, and husbandry care of coverage species.

Merlo, L. M. F., Sprouffske, K., Howard, T. C., Gardiner, K. L., Caulin, A. F., Blum, S. M., Evans, P., Bedalov, A., Sniegowski, P. D., Maley, C. C. Application of simultaneous selective pressures slows adaptation Evol Appl 13: 1615-1625, 2020.

Gardiner, K. L., Cideciyan, A. V., Swider, M., Dufour, V. L., Sumaroka, A., Komaromy, A. M., Hauswirth, W. W., Iwabe, S., Jacobson, S. G., Beltran, W. A., Aguirre, G. D. Long-term structural outcomes of late-stage RPE65 gene therapy Molecular Therapy 28: 266-278, 2020.

Bright, L. A., Gardiner, K. L., Veeder, C. L., Brice, A. K. Hepatic hemangiosarcoma in a cynomolgus macaque (Macaca fascicularis) Comparative Medicine 69: 240-248, 2019.

Downs, L. M., Scott, E. M., Cideciyan, A. V., Iwabe, S., Dufour, V., Gardiner, K. L., Genini, S., Marinho, L. F., Sumaroka, A., Kosyk, M. S., Swider, M., Aguirre, G. K., Jacobson, S. G., Beltran, W. A., Aguirre, G. D. Overlap of abnormal photoreceptor development and progressive degeneration in Leber congenital amaurosis caused by NPHP5 mutation Hum Mol Genet 25: 4211-4226, 2016.

Gardiner, K. L., Downs, L., Berta-Antalics, A. I., Santana, E., Aguirre, G. D., Genini, S. Photoreceptor proliferation and dysregulation of cell cycle genes in early onset inherited retinal degenerations BMC Genomics 17: 221, 2016.

Kosoff, R. E., Gardiner, K. L., Merlo, L. M., Pavlov, K., Rustgi, A. K., Maley, C. C. Development and characterization of an organotypic model of Barrett''s esophagus J Cell Physiol 227: 2654-9, 2012.

Merlo, L. M., Kosoff, R. E., Gardiner, K. L., Maley, C. C. An in vitro co-culture model of esophageal cells identifies ascorbic acid as a modulator of cell competition BMC Cancer 11: 461, 2011.

MB (Biothechnology) University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, 2008

VMD (Veterinary Medicine) University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, 2014

Diplomate, American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine

University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (2014 to 2015)
Internship, Exotic Companion Animal Medicine & Surgery Services

University of Pennsylvania (2015 to 2018)
Resisdency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, University Laboratory Animal Resources