Lucas Hoffman
University of Washington, WA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Microbes living in the body may help drive chronic childhood diseases. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a clear test case.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
cystic fibrosis
CFTR modulator therapy
gut microbiome
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2028
What they work on
- Test whether highly effective CFTR modulator therapy changes the gut microbiome and fecal metabolites, including bile acids, of people with cystic fibrosis, using stool samples and clinical data from two national observational studies.
- Determine whether the gut changes after CFTR modulator therapy track with clinical improvement, such as nutrition, in people with cystic fibrosis.
- Test whether CFTR modulator therapy changes upper and lower airway microbiomes in parallel with each other and with clinical improvement, using respiratory samples from the same national cystic fibrosis studies.
More about the research
CF is a genetic disease caused by a faulty protein called CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator). In people with CF, both the gut and the airways host abnormal microbial communities. A newer class of drugs, highly effective CFTR modulator therapy, restores the faulty protein's activity. This raises the question of whether fixing the underlying defect also restores healthier microbial communities. This mentoring award supports patient-oriented research on these questions and the training of students, fellows and junior faculty.
Why it matters
People with cystic fibrosis often have poor nutrition and chronic airway infections linked to abnormal gut and airway microbes. Learning whether CFTR modulator therapy restores healthier microbial communities could help explain these patients' clinical improvements. It could also point to remaining microbial problems that need treatment. The award also trains early-career clinician-scientists in patient-oriented research on childhood disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Daniel Beswick
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Characterize chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and loss of smell in young children with cystic fibrosis, using validated, age-appropriate, non-invasive objective and subjective measures.
Matthias Salathe
University of Kansas, KS·Physiology
Test whether high glucose, acting through the RAGE receptor, reduces BK potassium channel activity and drains airway surface liquid in cystic fibrosis bronchial epithelial cells grown in the lab.
Martina Gentzsch
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research
Provide lab-grown cell models and mouse and rabbit models of cystic fibrosis to study how defects in CFTR, the salt-and-water channel protein, cause disease, and to test new drug targets and treatments.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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