Profile

Luke Hoffman, MD, PhD

On staff since September 2004

Academic Title: Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Research Center: Center for Childhood Infections and Prematurity Research

Lucas R. Hoffman, MD, PhD, is attending physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Hoffman’s research focuses on chronic lung infections, particularly in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Chronic infections have proven to be particularly difficult to treat with standard antibiotic therapies. For example, the lung infections in children with CF are not improved by antibiotics to the degree we would expect.

Hoffman is working to understand why chronic lung infections are so difficult to treat and how to improve current treatments. Hoffman is also dedicated to the care of patients and to teaching medical students, residents and fellows. His areas of clinical expertise include asthma, CF, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, restrictive lung diseases and the pulmonary complications of neuromuscular disease. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Thoracic Society, and the American Society for Microbiology.

Making a Difference

Possible Secret Revealed
A discovery about how Pseudomonas interacts with Staphylococcus points the way to understanding its drug resistance and defeating chronic lung infections.... cont.

Recommendations

SarahKetchikan, AK11.06.11

Dr. Hoffman has been a blessing in our lives since the diagnosis of our daughter who has Cysitic Fibrosis. Dr. Hoffman has been our daughter's doctor since 4 months of age. Being from a small isolated community we have traveled countless times to the CF clinic. Dr. Hoffman has been accommodating to us due to difficult travel and has ALWAYS made time to address any questions or concerns big or small. Dr. Hoffman's passion is apparent in the way he interacts with his patients and their families. Dr. Hoffman provides excellent care and considers each step in our daughter's treatment and health maintenance plan carefully. I highly recommend him!

StephanieLynnwod, WA03.22.11

Dr. Hoffman was just a resident when he first cared for our son. Now, as an attending physician, Dr. Hoffman still provides care and consultation for our son, 13 years later. Dr. Hoffman's bedside manner is fantastic. I will always remember him crouching down to speak eye to eye with both patients and parents. His knowledge is extensive and he is always seeking to know more. Finding answers to difficult questions is a strength of Dr. Hoffman's. We highly recommend Dr. Luke Hoffman!

Recommend Dr. Luke Hoffman

Overview
Presentations
Research Funding

Overview

Board Certification(s): Pediatric Pulmonology
Medical/Professional School: University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco
Residency: Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
Fellowship: Pediatric Pulmonology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
Research Description: We are working to understand why children with chronic lung infections don't improve with antibiotics as predicted based on our knowledge of the microbes involved. As a paradigm for this problem, we focus on the chronic lung infections in people with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF), infections that usually respond incompletely to antibiotics predicted to be effective against the bacteria we know to be present. They exhibit several other characteristics common to many difficult to treat, chronic lung infections, including the following:

1) They frequently include multiple microbial species infecting together, which makes it difficult to know which of these species impact lung disease either by themselves or by interacting with other pathogenic microbes.

2) The chemical and microbial environment in which these infections occur is probably different from that used in laboratory microbial tests, including the availability of nutrients that impact microbial behavior.

Currently, our laboratory studies the behavior of the microbes causing CF and other chronic lung infections in models that attempt to more closely reflect the airway environment, which includes multiple microbial species, antibiotics, and specific nutrients. We hope to identify new and more effective treatments for children with chronic, polymicrobial lung infections, starting with CF.
Lab URL: http://depts.washington.edu/hofflab/home/
Research Focus Area: Cystic Fibrosis, Pulmonary

Presentations

Presentations Title	Event	Location	Date
Bacterial Adaptation During Chronic Infections: Lessons from Cystic Fibrosis	University of Montana Division of Biological Sciences Departmental Seminar	Missoula, MT	Dec. 7, 2009
Evolution and Biofilms	The 5th International American Society of Microbiology Conference on Biofilms	Cancun, Mexico	Nov. 17, 2009
Pseudomonas aeruginosa adaptation during early cystic fibrosis infection and treatment: lasR mutation	The 23rd Annual North American CF Conference	Minneapolis, MN	Oct. 10, 2009
Bacterial Adaptation During Chronic Infections: Lessons from Cystic Fibrosis	Vanderbilt University Department of Pediatrics Research Conference	Nashville, TN	Oct. 5, 2009
The Adaptive Significance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lasR Mutations in CF	: Cystic Fibrosis Research Development Program Annual Retreat,	Seattle, WA	Aug. 31, 2009
Interspecies Microbial Interactions in CF Airways- Lessons from Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus	Cystic Fibrosis Research Development Network Seminar Series	Seattle, WA	April 23, 2009

Research Funding

Grant Title	Grantor	Amount	Award Date
Pseudomonas aeruginosa adaptation during early cystic fibrosis infection and treatment	NIH, National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute	$250,000.00	Sept. 11, 2009
Community-level physiologic profiling to identify new therapies for polymicrobial infectious diseases	Royalty Research Fund	$30,622.00	May 1, 2009
Community-level physiologic profiling: A novel method to characterize polymicrobial infectious diseases	ITHS	$10,000.00	Feb. 1, 2009
The Impact of S. aureus normal and SCV forms in Cystic Fibrosis Lung Disease	The American Thoracic Society	$50,000.00	Jan. 1, 2008
Bridge Funding to Develop Methods to Study Polymicrobial Community Interactions in Cystic Fibrosis Lung Disease	Cystic Fibrosis Foundation	$75,000.00	Jan. 1, 2008
Alteration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa gene expression by sublethal cationic antibiotic concentrations	Cystic Fibrosis Foundation	$85,000.00	Jan. 1, 2008

Primary Office

Seattle Children's

OC.7.720 - Pulmonary
4800 Sand Point Way NE

Seattle, WA 98105

206-987-2174

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Luke Hoffman, MD, PhD

Making a Difference

Possible Secret Revealed

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Overview

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