Stefan Blum

Stefan is a Staff Specialist in Neurology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) and the Mater Centre for Neuroscience. He finished his training as neurologist in 2012.

He runs dedicated multiple sclerosis (MS) and Neuroimmunology clinics at the PAH, leading in modern MS therapies. Moreover, he has been at the forefront of advancing the field of neuroimmunology in Queensland, with establishment of dedicated neuroimmunology outpatient clinics at the RBWH and PAH, combining expertise from neurologists and immunologists in the care of this very complex group of disorders.

In addition to his busy, full-time clinical workload, Stefan has been involved as PI or CI in a range of clinical trials in the fields of MS, botulinum toxin, CIDP and Pompe’s disease. Additionally, he has performed and is involved in ongoing research projects of neuroimmunological disorders such as neuromyelitis optica, myasthenia gravis and autoimmune limbic encephalitis. He has been a member of the New Horizons study to assess prevalence of anti-neuronal antibodies in patients with new onset psychosis.

Prior to this, Stefan finished a PhD in the field of ‘Immunogenetics of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy’ at the University of Queensland in 2014. He also completed a doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 2002 in the field of T cell immunology. During this time, he has developed solid skills in bench-side immunological research.

Currently, he is neurological lead in a diverse group of clinicians and scientists investigating the role of antineuronal antibodies in neurological and psychiatric disease. He supervises 3 PhD students in the field of advanced imaging in autoimmune encephalitis and multiple sclerosis. He is currently building up a laboratory to test antineuronal antibodies using live cell assays.