Christiane Stehmann

Key facts

• Listed as a co-director of the ANCJDR at The Florey, together with Steven Collins and Sarah Holper, on the current registry services page.
• In April 2024 The Florey and The Medical Republic described her as Registry Coordinator of the ANCJDR.
• The ANCJDR runs national surveillance and diagnostics for human prion disease under contract to the Commonwealth Department of Health since 1993, offering a 14-3-3 CSF biomarker panel, RT-QuIC, PRNP testing, brain-only autopsy and tissue biopsy.
• First author of the Communicable Diseases Intelligence surveillance updates to 31 December 2023, 2024 and 2025, coauthored with Collins, Klug, McLean and Masters.
• The update to 31 December 2025 (published 2026-07-21) reports 788 domestic CSF specimens referred and 92 persons added to the register, 35 definite or probable cases among 84 initial notifications, neuropathology in 56 percent of suspected deaths and no variant or iatrogenic CJD.
• The update to 31 December 2024 (published 2025-10-22) reports 760 CSF specimens, 88 registrations, and neuropathology in 72 percent of suspected deaths, showing a fall in autopsy rate the following year.
• Coauthor of a 2026 J Neuropathol Exp Neurol paper on a seeded amplification assay for formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded brain, used to confirm prion seeding in two previously misdiagnosed PRNP mutation carriers.
• Coauthor of registry diagnostic studies in 2024: an evaluation of proposed MRI criteria for sporadic CJD (65 cases, 63 controls) and an Alzheimer biomarker analysis of 419 CSF samples referred for CJD screening.
• Coauthor of the international sporadic CJD genetics papers (PLoS One 2024 GWAS of duration and onset; Brain 2025 multiomic risk gene study, preprint July 2024) with Mead, Collinge, Zerr, Appleby, Parchi and Ladogana.
• In April 2024 she spoke publicly on the 3.02 million AUD five-year Commonwealth funding boost, describing the diagnostic path for patients as long with repeated misdiagnosis, and saying the funding helps prepare patients for coming clinical trials.

Timeline

1. 2024Australian Government funding of 3.02 million AUD over five years to the ANCJDR announced; Stehmann quoted as Registry Coordinator.
2. 2024PLoS One GWAS of sporadic CJD duration and age at onset published.
3. 2024Neuroradiology study of proposed MRI criteria for sporadic CJD published.
4. 2025CDI surveillance update to 31 December 2023 published.
5. 2025Brain multiomic CJD risk gene study published (preprint 2024-07-21).
6. 2025CDI surveillance update to 31 December 2024 published.
7. 2026J Neuropathol Exp Neurol fixed brain seeded amplification assay paper published.
8. 2026CDI surveillance update to 31 December 2025 published, Stehmann first author.