LVII Jiménez Díaz Commemorative Lecture

Onsite – Online

Madrid, May 19, 2025. 9:00 -13:30

Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz

Conference Room. Avda. Reyes Católicos, 2. Madrid

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Prof. Josep Dalmau Obrador 

“Autoimmune encephalitis:

What we have learned within and beyond neurology”

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Registration: from January 15th to May 15th, 2026

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Prof. Josep Dalmau

Professor Josep Dalmau is a researcher and neuro-oncologist internationally recognized for his work on brain diseases driven by immune mechanisms triggered by cancer, and more recently for identifying a new category of immune-mediated synaptic disorders. His research has uncovered previously unknown neurological and psychiatric diseases, developed definitive diagnostic tests, and established treatment approaches that often lead to full recovery. At the cellular and synaptic levels, his studies have shown how antibody-mediated changes in synaptic receptor structure and function produce prominent neurological and psychiatric symptoms. 

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Josep directs the Experimental Neuroimmunology Group at the Biomedical Research Institute August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) and the CaixaResearch Institute. He also serves as Consultor Emeritus at Hospital Clínic and Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied medicine at the University Autónoma of Barcelona and completed a neurology residency at Sant Pau Hospital, where he became interested in neurological complications of cancer. This led him in 1988 to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, where he trained in neuro-oncology and immunology under JB Posner. After three years of fellowship training, he transitioned to a faculty position, which he held for seven years. During this period, he identified several paraneoplastic disorders, including limbic and brainstem encephalitis linked to antibodies against a new family of neuronal proteins (Ma1, Ma2), and showed that lung cancer patients with certain neuronal antibodies (Hu antibodies) had better outcomes than those without this immune response. In parallel, he taught students and residents and became Director of the Neuro-oncology Fellowship Program at MSKCC. 

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In 1999, he became Director of Neuro-oncology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where he established an experimental neuro-immunology laboratory funded by the NIH. In 2002, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania to lead their clinical neuro-oncology program alongside his wife, Myrna Rosenfeld, a neuro-oncologist specializing in brain tumors. At Penn, his career took a major turn with the 2005 discovery of a new category of diseases mediated by antibodies against neuronal surface or synaptic proteins. Unlike paraneoplastic syndromes—which are invariably associated with cancer, mediated by cytotoxic T cells, usually affect older patients, and respond poorly to immunotherapy—these new diseases can occur with or without cancer, preferentially affect children and young adults, are antibody-mediated, and often respond to immunotherapy. Patients develop severe neurological and psychiatric deficits caused by antibody-mediated disruptions of receptors, synapses, and brain networks, which are reversible once the antibodies or antibody-producing cells are removed. The first and best-known of these diseases, named anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, was discovered by his group in 2007 and is now considered the second most common form of autoimmune encephalitis after acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. 

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After the initial studies at Penn, subsequent investigations—from identifying patients with novel disorders to elucidating their pathogenic mechanisms—have been carried out at IDIBAPS–CaixaResearch Institute and Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, after he returned to Spain in 2011 as Professor supported by ICREA. Since then, his group has identified seven additional neurological diseases in which the targets are synaptic proteins or receptors, and has successfully modelled them in animals. 

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From 2014 to 2025, Josep served as Editor of Neurology: Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation, a journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), and he currently serves as Associate Editor. He also chaired the Autoimmune Neurology Section of the AAN. His influence is reflected by his recognition as one of the most cited authors in Neuroscience and Behavior by Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics). 

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Josep´s work has been honored by numerous scientific societies and universities, including the American Neurological Association (Jacoby Award), British Association of Neurologists (“Editors of Brain Lecture Award”), Spanish Society of Neurology (Conference “Lluis Barraquer”; and Prize for Neurologic Diseases), French Society of Neurology (Member of Excellence), AAN (George C. Cotzias Award; and Frontiers of Neuroscience Award), Japanese Society of Neurology (Member of Excellence), European School of Neuroimmunology (Career Award), International Society of Neuroimmunology (John Newsom-Davis Lecture), American Brain Foundation (Scientific Breakthrough Award), American Psychiatric Association (Frontiers of Science Award), Premio Rey Jaime I (Spain), and the Premio Nacional de Investigación Gregorio Marañón (Spain). In 2015, he was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.