Washington, DC— September 13, 2007— One of the 2007 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) ICAAC Young Investigator Awards sponsored by Merck and Company, Inc., U.S. Human Health, will be presented to Lucas R. Hoffman, M.D., Ph.D., Acting Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Division of Pulmonary Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington. Dr. Hoffman is being honored for his research excellence in microbiology and infectious disease.
Dr. Hoffman has distinguished himself in his field through his significant research findings. These have been published in several journals, including twice in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
He is well known for his approach to complex problems, which he can successfully reduce to their essence and examine with an orderly method. His significant accomplishments have led to his receiving several awards from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, among others. He is particularly known for a paper published in Nature in 2005 describing how aminoglycoside antibiotics induce biofilm formation, which could have a very profound impact on the care of patients with cystic fibrosis. A subsequent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006 demonstrated the novel interaction between P. aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus in the presence of antibiotics. His ongoing research on P. aeruginosa is supported by an NIH Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award.
Dr. Hoffman received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was valedictorian, and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his postgraduate residency and fellowship at the Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington.
The ICAAC Young Investigator Awards will be presented during ASM’s 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 17 – September 20, 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. ASM is the world’s oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 43,000 members worldwide. ASM’s mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental well-being.