Alexandra Trannel
Alex Trannel is an infection preventionist at the University of Iowa (UI) Health Care Medical Center. She began her career as a clinical lab analyst in microbiology at the State Hygienic Laboratory (SHL), where she performed testing for enteric diseases, rabies, and was part of the bioterrorism preparedness team. Alex also contributed to foodborne illness monitoring by performing whole genome sequencing as part of CDC’s PulseNet surveillance network. In December of 2019, Alex joined a small team at SHL performing COVID-19 testing, which was the only lab in Iowa capable of performing that test at the time. In May 2020, she received her Master’s degree in infectious disease epidemiology and began working as an infection preventionist at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center. She currently serves as UI Health Care’s ambulatory infection preventionist covering over 150 clinics, the infection prevention liaison for pathology, and the Special Pathogen Unit (SPU) for which she was involved in a recent activation for a patient with Lassa Fever. Alex recently became certified in infection prevention and control in January 2025.

Title:
Microbiology for Infection Preventionists

Description: This presentation will give an overview of microbiology concepts that relate to infection prevention. Information from this presentation will allow infection preventionists to have a better understanding of the basics of microbiology so they can interpret results, effectively communicate with lab staff, and understand the importance of having a strong relationship with their microbiology lab.

Objectives:

1. Describe different characteristics and ways to identify organisms
2. Summarize strengths and weaknesses of different testing methods
3. Describe the microbiology lab’s role and different tools available for outbreak detection
4. Apply the identify, isolate, and inform framework for emerging pathogen management