Blum studied chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. She participated in multiple teaching and research projects, winning outstanding American Chemical Society student chapter, the UM Alumni Leadership award, and a National Science Foundation fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a PhD working with Robert G. Bergman. Blum published multiple first-author papers and received teaching awards throughout her tenure at the University of California, Berkeley. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in 2006.