Bio
Dr. Ryan F. Relich is an American Board of Medical Microbiology-certified medical microbiologist who is passionately interested in all facets of diagnostic microbiology, especially laboratory directorship, infectious disease epidemiology and pathology, new diagnostic test development and evaluation, pathogen discovery, and viral ecology. In his current academic position at the Indiana University School of Medicine, he is actively involved in fellow, resident, and student teaching, and is the Director of the IU School of Medicine's CPEP-accredited Medical and Public Health Laboratory Microbiology Fellowship Program. He is actively involved in research concerning in vitro diagnostic product development, clinical trials, and emerging virus ecology. As an employee of Indiana University Health, Dr. Relich serves as the Medical Director of the Division of Clinical Microbiology, Medical Director of the Special Pathogens Unit Laboratory, and Interim Medical Director of the Division of Molecular Pathology. Dr. Relich is immensely interested in the ecology of emerging viruses, pandemic preparedness, development of dignostics for novel viruses, virus discovery and characterization, and establishing best practices for manipulating highly infectious clinical specimens for routine diagnostic testing. For more information on Dr. Relich's research interests, please click on the "Research" tab below.
Key Publications
1. Chang-Graham AL, Sahoo MK, Huang C, Solis D, Sibai M, August G, Calayag L, Kenji OM, Shi RZ, Mostafa HH, Lei GS, Relich RF, Pinsky BA. 2023. Comparison of nucleocapsid antigen with strand-specific reverse-transcription PCR for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 infection. J Clin Virol 164:105468. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2023.105468.
2. Gavina K, Franco LC, Robinson CM, Hymas W, Lei GS, Sinclair W, Hall T, Carlquist J, Lavik JP, Emery CL, Heaton PR, Hillyard D, Lopransi BK, Relich RF. 2023. Standardization of SARS-CoV-2 cycle threshold values: multisite investigation evaluating viral quantitation across multiple commercial COVID-19 detection platforms. Microbiol Spectr Jan 18:e0447022. doi: 10.1128/spectrm.04470-22.
3. Relich RF, Loeffelholz MJ. 2023. Taxonomic changes for human viruses, 2020 - 2022. J Clin Microbiol Jan 26;61:e0033722. doi: 10.1128/jcm.00337-22.
4. Agard A, Elsheikh O, Bell D, Relich RF, Schmitt BH, Sadowski J, Fadel W, Webb DH, Dbeibo L, Kelley K, Carozza M, Lei GS, Calkins P, Beeler C. 2022. Clinical comparison and agreement of PCR, antigen, and viral culture for the diagnosis of COVID-19: clinical agreement between diagnostics for COVID-19. J Clin Virol Plus Aug;2(3):100099. doi: 10.1016/j.jcvp.2022.100099.
5. Pancholi P, Relich RF, Chandrasekaran S, Dunn JJ, Granato PA, Harrington AT, Hansen GT, Ledeboer NA, Li Q, Sims MD, Uphoff TS, Greene W, Young S, Dhiman N. 2022. Multicenter evaluation of the Simplexa VZV Direct assay for detection of varicella-zoster virus in cerebrospinal fluid and lesion-swab specimens. J Clin Microbiol Apr 20;60(4):e0235521. doi: 10.1128/jcm.02355-21.
6. Syed F, Li W, Relich RF, Russell PM, Zhang S, Zimmerman MK, Yu Q. 2021. Excessive matrix metalloproteinase-1 and hyperactivation of endothelial cells occurred in COVID-19 patients and were associated with the severity of COVID-19. J Infect Dis. Apr 22:jiab167. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiab167.
7. Schneider JG, Relich RF, Datta D, Bond C, Goings M, Hadd D, Lei GS, Kedra J, John CC. 2021. Indentifying risk factors that distinguish symptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection from common upper respiratory infections in children. Cureus. Feb 10;13(2):e13266. doi: 10.7759/cureus.13266.
8. Relich RF, Feldmann H, Haddock E. 2020. Methanol fixation, but not Giemsa staining, inactivates Ebola and Lassa viruses in peripheral blood smears made on plastic microscope slides. Am J Trop Med Hyg. Nov;103(5): 2085-2090. doi. 10.4269/ajtmh.19-0840.
9. Relich RF, Grabowski JM. 2020. Tick-borne viruses of North America. Clin Micrbiol Newsl. May;42(10): 79-86.
10. Leber AL, Lisby JG, Hansen G, Relich RF, Schneider UV, Granato P, Young S, Pareja J, Hannet I. 2020. Multicenter evaluation of the QIAstat-Dx respiratory panel for detection of viruses and bacteria in nasopharyngeal swab specimens. J Clin Microbiol. Apr 23;58(5):e00155-20.
Titles & Appointments
- Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
- Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
- Medical Director, IU Health Division of Clinical Microbiology
- Medical Director, IU Health Special Pathogens Unit Laboratory
- Interim Medical Director, IU Health Division of Molecular Pathology
- Director, IU School of Medicine CPEP-Accredited Medical and Public Health Laboratory Microbiology Fellowship Program
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Education
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Research
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Professional Organizations
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Board Certifications
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Clinical Interests
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Awards