Biosketch:

Dr. Eric Hoffman received BA degrees in both Music and Biology from Gettysburg College, with a research focus on molecular genetics in bacteria at Frederick Cancer Research Center in Nat Sternberg's group. He then obtained in PhD in Biology/Genetics from Johns Hopkins University in fruit fly molecular genetics, under the tutelage of Victor Corces (currently Chairman, Department of Biology). At that point, in 1986, he felt it important to apply emerging knowledge of molecular genetics to human disease problems, and joined the laboratory of Louis Kunkel at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School to work on muscular dystrophy. During his four years at Harvard, he participated in the cloning and sequencing of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene, and was responsible for identifying the protein product of the gene, dubbed "dystrophin". He was promoted first to Instructor, then to Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School before moving to a new laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. During his 9 years at the University of Pittsburgh, his laboratory continued to work on muscular dystrophy, while expanding research projects into a number of human hereditary conditions. Accomplishments included identification of the first voltage sensitive ion channel disorders (periodic paralysis in humans, and Quarter Horses), new loci for upper motor neuron disease (spastic paraplegia), novel causes of muscular dystrophy (beta-sarcoglycan deficiency), the first genetic causes of spontaneous pregnancy loss, and the mapping of the disease gene for Rett syndrome.

In 1999, he moved to Washington DC to start the Center for Genetic Medicine in Children's National Medical Center. A major goal in the move was to integrate all aspects of disease research, from the clinics, to clinical trials, to basic research, translational research, and ethics. Over the last four years, the Center for Genetic Medicine has rapidly grown to include approximately 90 scientists working on a variety of human conditions, in a highly integrated and collaborative environment.

Dr. Hoffman and the Center for Genetic Medicine have been awarded a number of distinctions by the US government, and non-profit foundations. He directs the Microarray Center at Children’s National Medical Center; one of the larger GeneChip facilities in the US. The Microarray Center has received a number of NIH awards, including the sole contract for study of spinal cord trauma from NIH/NINDS, a Programs in Genomic Applications grant from NIH/NHLBI, and others. An important part of the expression profiling and microarray groups is to provide a “data warehouse” to the public, generally before publication.

Dr. Hoffman has published approximately 300 papers, and has given over 250 invited seminars on the research in his laboratory.