In the Hoffman laboratory, we study how microbes contribute to chronic diseases of children. The microbes we study are found in the lung and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of children with these diseases.
In the Hoffman laboratory, we study how microbes contribute to chronic diseases of children. The microbes we study are found in the lung and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of children with these diseases.
Our research team gathered on the banks of the Montlake cut on a sunny March afternoon outside the UWMC.
Research Summary: I am a clinician-scientist; clinically, I am a pediatric pulmonologist, focused on the health and disease of children’s lungs. One of the most vexing problems I face in this clinical role is how to treat children with chronic infections, particularly those suffered by people with cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic endobronchial tubes, and non-CF bronchiectasis. Because of my frustration with these infections, my laboratory efforts concentrate on how to better study and treat these devastating infections. As nutritional failure plays a role in the outcomes of many of pediatric lung diseases, I am also interested in how the GI microbiota impact early growth and nutrition. My hope is to ameliorate or halt the lung diseases many chronic infections generate, and to improve the lung health of children worldwide.
Research Summary: Overall, my work focuses on genotypic and phenotypic characterization of microorganisms recovered from the CF lung environment. I am specifically interested in defining mechanisms of resistance, hypersusceptibility, and dependence to antimicrobial agents in clinical CF bacterial isolates. In parallel, a current project is focused on antibiotic susceptibility profiling of bacterial communities in CF sputum.
Research Summary: CF is a multi-organ system disease, however the hallmark clinical manifestations result in respiratory failure and gastrointestinal complications. In effort to better understand CF physiology and mechanisms of disease, my work focuses on characterizing the microbiota of both the lung and gastrointestinal tract in CF patients.
