Stephen L. Hoffman

Stephen L. Hoffman MD, DTMH, CAPT, MC, USN (RET) is the founder and CEO of Sanaria, Inc. 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, 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. 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.

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.

Contributions to science and technology Hoffman has over 500 scientific publications. He has made major contributions in the following areas.

Treatment of severe typhoid fever. He established that high dose dexamethasone treatment reduced mortality of severe typhoid fever by more than 80%. Development of whole sporozoite malaria vaccines. It has been known since the 1970s that immunization of humans by bite of mosquitoes infected with radiation attenuated P. falciparum (Pf) sporozoites (SPZ) protects these individuals. Malaria vaccine development always relied on creating subunit vaccines to try to duplicate this immunity, because it was thought to be impossible to produce a whole sporozoite vaccine that met regulatory and cost of goods standards. Hoffman conceived of the idea of developing an injectable sporozoite vaccine, and he and his team developed all the technology to manufacture whole sporozoite vaccines. Immunization with the radiation-attenuated PfSPZ Vaccine and the chemo-attenuated PfSPZ- CVac, have both been shown to induce 100% protective immunity in humans, protection that has now been shown to be durable for at least 18 months, and effective against the heterogeneous P. falciparum parasites found in high transmission areas of Mali and Burkina Faso. An international consortium has been established that has and will continue to run clinical trials at 5 sites in the U.S., Germany, 5 countries in Europe, 7 countries in Africa, and Indonesia, and is planning to submit a PfSPZ vaccine for licensure in 2028.

Awards and distinctions

Awards

1992 Best Scientific Paper Award, Naval Medical Research Institute, Fifty Years of Scientific Excellence 1942–1992. "Protection Against Malaria by Vaccination with Sporozoite Surface Protein 2 Plus CS Protein." Science, 1991 1992 Bailey K. Ashford Medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for, "Outstanding contributions to the field of tropical medicine by a scientist less than 45 years of age." 1993 Legion of Merit Medal; United States Navy: awarded for scientific accomplishments 1994 The Colonel George W. Hunter III Certificate, 1994; For excellence as senior lecturer in Tropical Medicine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research 2015 Best Biotech CEO, Vaccine Industry Excellence (ViE) Awards, World Vaccine Congress 2015 CEO of the Year, Tech Council of Maryland 2016 Alumni Association Award of Distinction, Weill Cornell Medical College 2020 Clara Southmayd Ludlow Medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for " inspirational and pioneering spirit, whose work represents success despite obstacles and advances the field of tropical medicine"

Memberships

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (member 1978, fellow 2012) Infectious Diseases Society of America (elected fellow 1988) American Society for Clinical Investigation (elected 1990) Association of American Physicians (elected 2003) National Academy of Medicine (elected 2004) American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow 2008) American Academy of Family Physicians (member 2016)

Personal life Hoffman is married to B. Kim Lee Sim, PhD, a molecular biologist, who was the founder and president of Protein Potential LLC and is current executive vice president of Sanaria Inc. They have three children (Alexander [JD], Seth [MD], and Benjamin [MD, PhD] ).

Selected publications

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Mordmuller B, Surat G, Lagler H, Chakravarty S, Ishizuka AS, Lalremruata A, Gmeiner M, Campo JJ, Esen M, Ruben AJ, Held J, Calle CL, Mengue JB, Gebru T, Ibanez J, Sulyok M, James ER, Billingsley PF, Natasha KC, Manoj A, Murshedkar T, Gunasekera A, Eappen AG, Li T, Stafford RE, Li M, Felgner PL, Seder RA, Richie TL, Sim BK, Hoffman SL, and Kremsner PG. Sterile protection against human malaria by chemoattenuated PfSPZ vaccine. Nature 542: 445–449, 2017. .