Stephen L. Hoffman (born July 31, 1948) is an American physician-scientist, tropical medicine specialist and vaccinologist, who is the founder and chief executive and scientific officer of Sanaria Inc., a company dedicated to developing PfSPZ vaccines to prevent malaria.
Early life and education
Hoffman was raised initially in Belmar and subsequently in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. He graduated from Asbury Park High School in 1966, received a BA in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, an MD from Cornell University Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medicine) in 1975, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1978. Additionally in 1978, he completed a residency in Family Medicine at the University of California San Diego. He is board certified in Family Medicine and received a Certificate of Knowledge in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers Health in 1998, and a Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa from Monmouth University in 2006.
Professional career
Work experience
After completing his residency in 1978, Hoffman was co-founder and director of the Tropical Medicine and Travelers clinic at University Hospital, University of California, San Diego, an adjunct clinical faculty member, and an emergency room physician. In 1980, Hoffman was commissioned as a medical officer in the United States Navy and stationed in Jakarta, Indonesia at the Naval Medical Research Unit Two-Jakarta Detachment where he was the director of the Department of Clinical Investigation and Epidemiology through 1984. His initial focus was on treatment of severe, typhoid fever. He proposed and studied an intervention, which reduced the typhoid fever death rate by more than 80 percent. He also conducted research throughout the Indonesian archipelago on cholera, filariasis, and malaria. In 1987, Hoffman returned to Bethesda, MD, and served as the director of the Malaria Program at the Naval Medical Research Institute (later Naval Medical Research Center) until 2001. Hoffman and his team worked on identifying the targets and mechanisms of protective immunity against malaria and malaria vaccine development. They were the first in the world to test a DNA vaccine in normal humans and demonstrate that DNA vaccines elicited killer T cell responses. Hoffman also led the team that sequenced the Plasmodium falciparum genome.
After retiring from the Navy, Hoffman spent two years as senior vice president of biologics at Celera Genomics, the company that sequenced the human genome. Hoffman worked with utilizing human genomics and proteomics to develop immunotherapies and vaccines against cancer and to establish the potential for the field of personalized medicine. He also organized the sequencing of the genome of Anopheles gambiae.
In 2003 Hoffman founded Sanaria Inc. to develop whole sporozoite malaria vaccines and has since been the chief executive and scientific officer of Sanaria Inc.
Contributions to science and technology
Hoffman has over 500 scientific publications. He has made major contributions in the following areas.