Brad E Hoffman Email Address

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university on a 2,000-acre campus in FL.

I am an immunologist with a long-standing interest in tolerance induction in autoimmune and genetic disease. I have a broad background in molecular and cellular immunology with specific expertise in immune modulatory therapies in animal models. My previous research achievements involved investigating the immune response in Multiple Sclerosis. More specifically, using a murine model of autoimmune demyelinating disease I evaluated several mechanisms of the inflammatory response. This work provided a strong background and expertise in key research areas of neurodegenerative disease necessary for this proposal. My recent research has been aimed at exploiting the molecular and cellular mechanisms of viral gene transfer to induce immunological tolerance to specific antigens as a preventative or therapeutic intervention. I have been investigating the organ-specific immune response to viral mediated gene transfer. I am particularly interested in the mechanisms surrounding the generation of antigen-specific regulatory T-cells (Tregs), and the role they have in tolerance induction following gene transfer. Importantly, I demonstrated that immune tolerance to a liver-derived transgene product could be preserved, even if the antigen was subsequently expressed in a highly immunogenic manner in other organs. These findings are significant and have practical implications for the treatment of autoimmune, neurodegenerative, and cancer-related diseases. My current research is intended to exploit the unique molecular and cellular mechanisms of viral gene therapy in order to modulate immunological tolerance to specific antigens as a preventative or therapeutic intervention in autoimmune neurological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis.