Microbiology Core People

Associate Program Director and Host Microbe Core Director, CF RDP

Dr. Hoffman is a physician-scientist particularly interested in understanding the microbial determinants of clinical outcomes in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Clinically, he is a pediatric pulmonologist, and he cares for children with CF and other chronic lung diseases. Dr. Hoffman has worked in CF microbiology since 2002. He directs Seattle Children’s Hospital CF clinical microbiology laboratory, and he is also the director of a National Resource Center supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutic Development Network (CF-TDN) dedicated to providing consultation and services regarding CF microbiological diagnosis and testing—the Center for CF Microbiology (CCFM).

Program Director and Director, Microbiology Core

Dr. Greenberg is a Professor of Microbiology and is a Multi-PI with Dr. Ramsey. In addition, Dr. Greenberg is also the Director for the Microbiology Core of the Seattle CFRTC. Dr. Greenberg served as Director of the UW CF Foundation supported Research Development Program (RDP) from 2006-2015. He has served continuously as a member of the CFF Research and Research Training Committee for the past 12 years. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the fundamental biology underlying the chronicity of CF lung infections and the regulation of virulence gene expression in P. aeruginosa and other CF pathogens. Dr. Greenberg is an authority on microbemicrobe interactions. This is an area of increasing relevance as we come to understand that the CF lung represents a polymicrobial community. Furthermore, as research efforts on the intestinal microbiota of CF patients begins to move ahead this expertise will be invaluable. Dr. Greenberg is currently located on the third floor of the K-wing of UW Medicine in laboratories adjacent to the CF Foundation supported RDP Chronic Infection Core.

Dr. Hernandez assumed leadership of the CF Isolate Core at Seattle Children’s Research Institute in July 2015. Dr. Hernandez is a physician-scientist trained in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. His research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of mycobacterial organisms, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM) that are increasingly identified as pathogens in cystic fibrosis patients. He is interested in the complex interactions between innate immune cells, especially macrophages, and mycobacteria. Furthermore, his work explores how mycobacteria develop tolerance to multiple antibiotics that likely contribute to the challenges in treating these infections. His work on drug tolerance in NTM pathogens from CF patients is funded by a pilot grant from the CF Foundation-funded Research Development Program at the UW. Dr. Hernandez’s research program is primarily based at Seattle Children’s Research Institute but he works closely with other mycobacterial researchers, especially Drs. David Sherman (Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Seattle, WA) and Lalita Ramakrishnan (Cambridge University, UK). Dr. Hernandez also serves as an attending physician on the Infectious Diseases Service at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Manoil is an expert on the genetics and genomics of CF pathogens. He has developed a variety of critical methods that have led to rapid progress in our understanding of P. aeruginosa biology and he has recently turned his attention to identification of new targets for CF therapeutic development by using his high-throughput methods. He will oversee our mutant repository and our phenotype screening service facility. Dr. Manoil is a member of the Genome Sciences Department at UW Medicine. His laboratory is housed in the Foege Building, which is next door to and approximately a one-minute walk from the K wing.