About

Dr. Hoffman received his BA in Biology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and his MD (Medicine) at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. He performed his internship, residency, and chief residency in Pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC. He came to UC San Diego as a postdoctoral fellow in Allergy and Immunology in 1994, and is now full professor of Pediatrics and Medicine. In 2012, he accepted the position of Division Chief for the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital of San Diego.

He is the author of more than 70 original scientific publications, largely devoted to the study of the NLRP3 inflammasome and innate immunity.

Dr. Hoffman has served as a member of numerous national and international scientific boards including the Advisory Board for the Arthritis National Research Foundation, and as Secretary of both the International Cytokine Society and International Systemic Autoinflammatory Disease Society. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Dr. Hoffman has received numerous awards including the American Lung Association of California Research Training Fellowship Award, American Lung Association of California Research Training Fellowship Award, Distinguished Fellows Asthma Education Scholarship Award, Merck Respiratory Young Investigator, AAAAI Education Research Trust Young Investigator Award, Arthritis Foundation – San Diego County Chapter Research Award and Sheldon Wolff Award for Translational Research. Most recently, he was honored with the International Society of Autoinflammatory Diseases Senior Investigator Award.

Laboratory Personnel

Contact information and photos of our scientists, research associates, and laboratory administrators are provided on the People page. See Contact Us for mailing addresses and telephone numbers for the laboratory.

Funding & Research Studies

Current active major grants funding the Hoffman laboratory investigations include the following:

• a research program project funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on the genetics of asthma.

Dr. Hoffman has several active collaborations both within and outside of the Division. He is a co-investigator with Division colleague Dr. David H. Broide to study the role of specific 17q genes on asthma in mice using novel mouse models and recently published in PNAS: Miller M, Tam AB, Cho JY, Doherty TA, Pham A, Khorram N, Rosenthal P, Mueller JL, Hoffman HM, Suzukawa M, Niwa M, Broide DH. ORMDL3 is an inducible lung epithelial gene regulating metalloproteases, chemokines, OAS, and ATF6.

He has teamed with Dr. Ariel Feldstein (Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Pediatrics) to investigate the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in liver inflammation and fibrosis, most recently published in Hepatology: Wree A, Eguchi A, McGeough MD, Pena CA, Johnson CD, Canbay A, Hoffman HM, Feldstein AE. NLRP3 inflammasome activation results in hepatocyte pyroptosis, liver inflammation and fibrosis.

Mentoring

BILD99 / BISP196 / BISP199

We welcome students to participate in the Biomedical Sciences Independent Research Program (BILD99/BISP196/BISP199). Please inquire by email to hahoffman@ucsd.edu for projects.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Interested candidates should inquire by email to hahoffman@ucsd.edu. Please attach your curriculum vitae, a PDF of any recent publication(s) and the names and email addresses of three professional references.