Genevieve M. Klug

Key facts

• She is a co-author on the ANCJDR annual surveillance updates for 2023, 2024 and 2025, published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence in March 2025, October 2025 and July 2026.
• In the July 2026 and October 2025 reports she is listed as Ms Genevieve Klug at the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, while most registry co-authors are listed at the Florey Institute.
• The Florey page for the registry names Steven Collins, Christiane Stehmann and Sarah Holper as co-directors and lists other staff, but does not name her.
• She was first author of the annual Australian CJD surveillance report from the 1970 to 2003 report (2004) to the update to December 2016 (2018), and then moved to a co-author position when Christiane Stehmann became first author from 2019.
• She was first author of a 2013 J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry study across ten countries (1993 to 2006) showing that suspected case notifications, CSF 14-3-3 test referrals and neuropathology examinations each predicted observed prion disease incidence.
• She was first author of a 2009 Brain paper showing that enhanced surveillance in a limited area can simulate a sporadic CJD cluster.
• She was a co-author on the 2011 Nature Medicine paper that introduced RT-QuIC for CSF, which reported over 80 percent sensitivity and 100 percent specificity on 30 blinded CSF samples, with the Australian registry contributing samples and authors.
• She was a co-author on the 2014 Am J Hum Genet paper showing that apparent anticipation in genetic prion disease is an artefact of ascertainment bias, an international collaboration with Eric Minikel, Inga Zerr, Simon Mead and Michael Geschwind.
• Her wider work covers iatrogenic risk: co-author on registry papers on lyodura (2004), on pituitary hormone recipients and infection control (2010), and on causes of death among Australian cadaveric pituitary hormone recipients (2020).
• The 2025 report she co-authored records 788 domestic CSF specimens referred for testing and 92 persons added to the national register; the 2024 report records 760 specimens, 88 persons and neuropathology in 72 percent of suspected deaths.

Timeline

1. 2004First author of the surveillance report covering January 1970 to December 2003.
2. 2009First author of the Brain paper on surveillance simulating a sporadic CJD cluster.
3. 2011Co-author on the Nature Medicine paper introducing CSF RT-QuIC.
4. 2013First author of the ten-country study linking surveillance intensity to observed incidence.
5. 2014Co-author on the Am J Hum Genet paper on ascertainment bias and anticipation in genetic prion disease.
6. 2018Last annual surveillance report as first author (update to December 2016).
7. 2025Co-author on the update to 31 December 2023.
8. 2025Co-author on the update to 31 December 2024.
9. 2026Co-author on the update to 31 December 2025 in Communicable Diseases Intelligence, listed at the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne.