With great sadness we are reporting the passing of Professor Werner Friedrich Paul Blum on December 4, 2024. He was an outstanding biochemist and paediatric endocrinologist who will be greatly missed by his family – his wife Ingrid and their sons Roman and Adrian – and many friends and colleagues worldwide.
Werner was born (August 20, 1949) and raised in the small rural town of Söhnstetten in the southeastern part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen (1970–1977), with intermissions of terms at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Munich. In addition, and partly in parallel, he studied medicine at the University of Tübingen (1975–1981). In 1982, he joined the endocrine laboratory at the University Children’s Hospital Tübingen (Chair: Prof. Jürgen Bierich) to work on a doctoral thesis in Biochemistry (Dr. rer. nat.) about the polymorphism of rat FSH. This initiated a deeper interest in endocrinology.
From 1982 to 1990 he was a resident in paediatrics at the Children’s Hospital, Tübingen, including a 2-year full-time research fellowship focused on growth, growth hormone (GH), and somatomedins. He qualified as a medical doctor (Dr. med.) in 1987, became a certified paediatrician in 1991, gained habilitation with a theme related to the significance of IGFBP-3, and was granted venia legendi for paediatrics in 1994. Werner was an excellent lecturer, delivering his depth and breadth of knowledge with clarity and charisma. Based on the strength of his teaching skill, he was awarded an Honorary Professorship from the University of Leipzig in 1999.
During the years at the Children’s Hospital in Tübingen, Werner’s workload and output were enormous. Assays for IGFBP-3, IGF-I, and IGF-II were developed, normative values were established and the utility of these measurements for the diagnosis and during treatment of short stature was established. Together with the Paediatric Nephrology group in Heidelberg he substantially contributed to the unravelling and treatment of GH/IGF insensitivity in chronic renal disease. He reported IGF-independent effects of IGFBPs and was involved in the European project of treating children with GH insensitivity with rhIGF-I. Thus, within a short time, Werner had established himself as a major international player in the field. An academic career appeared to be the natural next step for him.
However, in the early 1990s no suitable university positions were vacant, so Werner joined the scientific team of Lilly Research Laboratories (Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, USA), basing his work at Lilly Deutschland from 1994 until retirement as a Senior Medical Fellow in 2014. In his role as a research scientist at Lilly, Werner demonstrated his great talent for inspiring members of a team, by leading an international group of physicians and scientists focused on the investigation of novel therapeutic uses of recombinant human GH (rhGH) in childhood. In this role, he designed and implemented a post-marketing surveillance study (the Genetics and Neuroendocrinology of Short Stature International Study; GeNeSIS) that combined cutting-edge science (including genomics and proteomics), with critical analysis of the long-term safety and efficacy of rhGH treatment. Werner and his international team of eminent GeNeSIS scientific advisors extended the focus of GH research to the genetics and neuroendocrine control of hypopituitarism and other growth disorders.
While at Lilly he also ran a research laboratory and held a teaching position at the University of Giessen. Werner maintained highly productive academic collaborations throughout his career, including the development of a leptin assay, and the establishment of comprehensive reference ranges for this new hormone in health and disease. With his characteristic creativity, Werner dubbed leptin “The Voice of Adipose Tissue” in his 1997 reference book on the topic, in collaboration with Drs. Kiess and Rascher. He also contributed to furthering the understanding of the role of the short-stature homeobox-containing gene (SHOX) in growth, and establishing the indication for rhGH in SHOX-deficiency states in children.
Werner will remain to be an example of great scientific rigour for physician scientists following various career paths. As the result of his impressive publications, Werner Blum had eventually become one of the highest-ranked German paediatric endocrinologists today. His unprejudiced interaction between academic institutions and a research-oriented pharmaceutical industry is an example of future developments in medicine where basic research is to be transformed into clinical practice.
Werner’s interests outside his professional activities illustrate other facets of his personality. He was extremely well read, particularly in matters of history, an area deepened by part-time university studies. He travelled to many remote countries, particularly the Middle East and South Asia – often backpacking and using public transportation – in order to get an authentic impression of the local culture and to expand the understanding of what he had read in preparing such “expeditions.” He was friendly, engaging, a versatile opponent in debates, and enjoyable company during long evenings.
He will be greatly missed by his many friends and colleagues from all walks of life – Michael B. Ranke, Tübingen, Germany; Andrea Attanasio, Tübingen, Germany; Anne Marie Bergevin, Bradenton, FL, USA; Chris Child, Wokingham, UK; John Chipman, Carmel, IN, USA; Gordon Cutler, Deltaville, VA, USA; Christine Jones, Neu-Anspach, Germany; Ander Juul, Copenhagen, Denmark; Wieland Kiess, Leipzig, Germany; Jürgen Kratzsch, Leipzig, Germany; Otto Mehls, Heidelberg, Germany; Roland Pfäffle, Leipzig, Germany; Charmian Quigley, Sydney, Australia; Ron G. Rosenfeld, Stanford, USA; Martin O. Savage, London, UK; Jan-Maarten Wit, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Stefan Wudy, Giessen, Germany.
