Meet Dr. Tiffany Brandt

I began my pursuit of a doctoral degree seeking a career in antimicrobial drug design, so my research focused on bacterial pathogenesis and the development of antimicrobial resistance. Through this work, I became intensely passionate about antimicrobial stewardship and the diagnostics that help clinicians help patients. During my time in graduate school, I found I most loved teaching and it was an absolute honor to get to watch people grow their understanding and confidence in areas with which they were previously unfamiliar or felt were out of their reach. As my time in graduate school came to a close, I felt conflicted. Facilitating learning for others was especially rewarding and I considered the notion that the therapeutic side of a career in Microbiology wasn’t the path for me, perhaps education was.  

It was also during my first year of graduate school that my 6-year-old dog, Cash, had a sudden loss of energy and weight. He went from a healthy 90 pounds to 50 pounds with severe pancytopenia during the 3 months we performed, and waited on, many diagnostics. Cash was eventually found to have a rare, difficult-to-diagnose cancer. We later learned this was only discovered because our veterinarian, and a compassionate pathologist she worked closely with, spent many additional hours consulting with other pathologists around the globe. Because they took the extra time, they found someone that held the key to his diagnosis, and we were able to have 14 additional high-quality months together. 

"Because they took the extra time, they found someone that held the key to his diagnosis, and we were able to have 14 additional high-quality months together."

Shortly after, we were years into battling our other dog, Dolly’s, relentless UTIs. They often appeared resolved as her microbiology results suggested no bacteria were cultivated for many months, but her symptoms worsened. Because of my microbiology work at the time, we processed portions of her samples immediately after collection and were able to identify that she had a severe infection that the lab missed (on multiple occasions). At this point I felt strongly I wanted to facilitate processes that prevent missed infections and catch the more difficult-to-diagnose pathogens. 

It felt like a cinematic moment when I discovered Ellie was opening a Microbiology lab. It felt like fate, and I was ecstatic to get to be part of opening a Microbiology lab so I could strive to help folks like us who just want the kind of answers that require a more in-depth assessment. This role merges the therapeutic side of microbiology with education, so I didn’t have to leave one area of my expertise behind to pursue the other. I have the opportunity to do what I most love, which is using a specialized set of skills to help others who just need answers. 

"I get to do what I most love, which is using a specialized set of skills to help others who just need answers."

I feel that I owe far more than I could ever give back to the veterinarians who took the extra time to identify Cash’s unusual cancer. I’m continuously grateful I get to help others similarly to how they, and the diagnostic community, helped me. It is because of them we named our first analyzer in the Microbiology lab, “Cash”, to honor the work they did for him and to serve as a reminder of why we take the time to do our absolute best. 

While Dolly’s UTIs also impacted our lives greatly, I certainly didn’t expect them to completely change my career path. For families like ours, who simply want to have the highest quantity and quality of time with their loved ones, and for clinicians who are seeking answers, it is of utmost importance to me to spend extra time with unusual cases. I’ve been on the receiving end of hasty and imprecise diagnostics, and it is my entire goal to ensure that doesn’t happen to others. If we hadn’t experienced the challenges associated with inadequate diagnostics, I wouldn’t have found this area of work. So, as we bring in our new MALDI-TOF analyzer, we are naming it “Dolly”, serving as another reminder of the need for careful consideration of each individual case.  

I think the combination of my training and my personal life history makes this the ideal job for me. I get to teach others in a way that prioritizes compassion and accuracy above all else, and I also I get to take back a little bit of the despair we felt due to unreliable diagnostic results by working to protect others from the same. Building a team of people that genuinely care has been overwhelmingly fulfilling and I get a bit emotional watching them invest themselves in each case. With our dogs’ unusual presentations, my family desperately wished for help from people like them; people who reach for compassion and who maintain the unique skillset to help in ways others cannot. I’m so proud to have the opportunity to build a team that does just that.  

I often think of the veterinarians who gave us the gift of more time with our family members, and I hope that in some small way I get to pass that on to others. It brings me the greatest joy to get to chat with veterinarians about results and I’m thrilled to get to provide information that can hopefully bring relief, happiness, and time to those who just want to help their loved ones.

"I’m thrilled to get to provide information that can hopefully bring relief, happiness, and time to those who just want to help their loved ones. "