Our group identifies antibody-mediated neurological diseases which can be effectively treated with immunotherapies. Earlier work focused on antibodies to neuromuscular junction proteins (the postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor and muscle specific kinase, presynaptic calcium channels) in forms of autoimmune myasthenia gravis and the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome respectively, and the role of maternal antibodies to foetal proteins in neurodevelopmental disorders. We studied pathogenicity in animals injected with the human antibodies. In 2001 we described the first two limbic encephalitis patients with serum antibodies against the potassium channel complex showing that, contrary to the prevailing dogma, antibodies can cause central nervous system disease. Many patients have since been diagnosed and the antigens defined as the potassium channel complex proteins (LGI1 and CASPR2). Other central nervous system diseases associated with antibodies (to glycine receptors, NMDA receptors) have now been identified in Oxford and elsewhere, with more discoveries in progress.