• Biosciences Graduate Program
• Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Infomatics
• Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Translational Biomedicine
• Medical Scientist Training Program

Eric A. Hoffman, PhD is a professor of radiology, medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa. He is the director of the Advanced Pulmonary Physiomic Imaging Laboratory (APPIL) in the Department of Radiology and the director of the Iowa Comprehensive Lung Imaging Center (I-Clic) at the University of Iowa. He received his Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Minnesota / Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 1981 and remained on staff at the Mayo Clinic where he was a member of the team which Developed the Dynamic Spatial Reconstructor (DSR), a one of a kind CT scanner which was able to gather up to 240 contiguous CT sections of the body every 1/60 second. Throughout his career he has used advanced imaging methodologies to study basic respiratory physiology centered largely on mechanisms of ventilation and perfusion heterogeneity and regional lung mechanics. Dr. Hoffman moved from the Mayo Clinic in 1987 to head the Cardiothoracic Imaging Research Center in the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania and then moved in 1992 to his current position at the University of Iowa. Most recently, in addition to continuing basic physiologic research of the lung, he has established a combination of single and multi-spectral multidetector row spiral CT imaging methodology to objectively follow human lung pathology and pathophysiology with a particular emphasis on inflammatory lung diseases. The centerpiece of APPIL is a Siemens SOMATOM Force CT scanner.

Dr. Hoffman is the author of more than 570 journal articles and 21 book chapters in the field of dynamic volumetric imaging of the lung and heart and served for 5 years as the founding chair of the Physiology and Function from Multidimensional Imaging sessions of the SPIE Medical Imaging conference. Dr. Hoffman was inducted into the college of fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in March of 2000 and was elected into the Fleischner Society in May 2005 and named a Distinguished Investigator by The Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research in 2018. He received the 2013 John West award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Functional Pulmonary Imaging from the IWPFI, the 2014 Joseph R Rodarte Award for Scientific Distinction from the Respiratory Structure and Function Assembly of the American Thoracic Society and the 2018 Alton Ochsner Award "relating smoking and disease." He is a fellow of the European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Hoffman's laboratory is dedicated to the use of advanced imaging methodologies for the exploration of normal and pathologic physiology of the lung with specific areas of interest relating to inflammatory lung diseases including COPD, Astham and environmentally induced pathologies. APPIL serves as the Radiology Center for numerous large multi-center studies utilizing imaging to phenotype the lung as a component of the study (including SPIROMICS, MESA Lung, SARP, PreCISE, British Lung Foundation Early COPD)

Dr. Eric A. Hoffman, Ph.D. was a member of the team at the Mayo Clinic which, in the mid-late 1970's developed the Dynamic Spatial Reconstructor (DSR), a one of a kind CT scanner which was able to gather up to 240 contiguous CT sections of the body every 1/60 second. Through his career, Dr. Hoffman has used advanced imaging methodologies to study basic respiratory physiology centered largely on mechanisms of ventilation and perfusion heterogeneity and regional lung mechanics. His earliest publication served to define the role of the H1 and H2 (histamine) receptors in the lung and in the mid to late 1970's he performed biplane video fluoroscopy studies to provide insights into lung mechanics with the assessment of gradients in pleural surface forces (pleural pressure). Also in the late 1970's volumetric computed tomography was used to provide a first look at regional lung mechanics in the never invaded negative pressure environment of the intact thorax.

1. E.A. Hoffman, M.L. Munroe, A. Tucker, J.T. Reeves. Histamine H1- and H2-receptors in the cat and their roles during alveolar hypoxia. Respiratory Physiology 197 May; 29(3):255-264. PubMed PMID: 882726.
2. E.A. Hoffman, T. Behrenbeck, P.A. Chevalier, and E.H. Wood. Estimation of regional pleural surface expansile forces in intact dogs. Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental, and Exercise Physiology 1983; 55(3):935-948. PubMed PMID:6355027.
3. E.A. Hoffman, L.J. Sinak, R.A. Robb, and E.L. Ritman. Noninvasive quantitative imaging of shape and volume of lungs. Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiratory, Environmental, and Exercise Physiology 1983; 54(5):1414-1421. PubMed PMID:6863100.
4. E.A. Hoffman and E.L. Ritman. Shape and dimensions of cardiac chambers: importance of CT section thickness and orientation. Radiology 1985; 155(3): 739-744. PubMed PMID:4001378

Early observations with dynamic volumetric CT of the heart and lung served to demonstrate that gradients in regional lung expansion in the supine lung were not simply a function of gravity because the gradient was nearly eliminated, not just reversed , in the prone body posture. Comparative studies of dogs and sloths lead to the notion that support of the heart by the lung contributes to regional differences in lung expansion. Cardiac investigations demonstrated that the total volume of the heart (contents of the the pericardial sac) remains relatively constant throughout the cardiac cycle with the atria filling while the ventricles empty and the fluid filled pericardial sac buffering shape changes, allowing the heart to expend it's energy pumping blood and protecting the lung from large intra-thoracic volume changes. It was demonstrated that the constant heart volume relationship was disrupted by atrial fibrillation as atrial wall stiffness added to ventricular afterload as the descent of the atrial valve plane met increased resistance.

1. E.A. Hoffman. Effect of body orientation on regional lung expansion: computed tomographic approach. Journal of Applied Physiology 1985; 59(2): 468-480. PubMed PMID: 4030599.
2. E.A. Hoffman and E.L. Ritman. Effect of body orientation on regional lung expansion in dog and sloth. Journal of Applied Physiology 1985; 59(2): 481-491. PubMed PMID: 4030600.
3. E.A. Hoffman and E.L. Ritman. Invariant total heart volume in the intact thorax. American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology 1985; 249:H883-H890. PubMed PMID: 4051023.
4. Hoffman EA and E.L. Ritman. Heart-lung interaction: Effect on regional lung air content and total heart volume. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 1987; 15(3-4):241-257. PubMed PMID: 3662146.

Other early works included imaging-based assessments of the upper airway in obstructive sleep apnea, the cholinergic and adrenergic response of the bronchial tree, further investigation of mechanical interactions between the heart and lung. From the expansion of the early works, Hoffman's contributions have served to illuminate many underlying relationships in both COPD, Asthma and Cystic Fibrosis with key findings demonstrating that smokers susceptible to centriacinar emphysema demonstrate increased heterogeneity of perfusion, CF is characterized by a tethering of extruded mucous and COPD subjects have thinned, not thickened, airways if one accounts for spatial location within the airway tree.

1. S. Alford, E.J. van Beek, G. McLennan, E.A. Hoffman. Heterogeneity of Pulmonary Perfusion in Lung Disease: Phenotyping COPD by Multi-Detector Row CT. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2010 Apr 20:107(16):7485-90. PubMed PMID:20368443; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2867701.
2. B.M. Smith, E.A. Hoffman, D. Rabinowitz, E. Bleecker, S. Christenson, D. Couper, K.M. Donohue, M.K. Han, N.N. Hansel, R.E. Kanner, E. Kleerup, S. Rennard, R.G. Barr. Comparison of spatially matched airways reveals thinner airway walls in COPD The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)COPD Study and the Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcomes in COPD Study (SPIROMICS). Thorax. 2014 Nov;69(11):987-96. PubMed PMID:24928812; PubMed PMCID: PMC4213995.
3. E.A. Hoffman, F.S. Ahmed, H. Baumhauer, M. Budoff, J.J. Carr, R. Kronmal, S. Reddy, R.G. Barr. Variation in the percent of emphysema-like lung in a healthy, nonsmoking multiethnic sample. The MESA lung study. Ann Am Thoracic Soc. 2014 Jul;11(6):898-907. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.201310-364OC. PMCID:PMC4213995.
4. M.J. Hoegger, M. Awadalla, E. Namati, O.A. Itani, A.J. Fischer, A.J. Tucker, R.J. Adam, G. McLennan, E.A. Hoffman, D.A. Stoltz, M.J. Welsh. Assessing mucociliary transport of single particles in vivo shows variable speed and preference for the ventral trachea in newborn pigs. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014 Feb 11;111(6) :2355-60. doi: 10.1073/pnas. 1323633111. Epub 2014 Jan 28. PubMed PMID: 25124441; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4346163.

In addition to direct assessment of lung physiology and pathophysiology, Hoffman's imaging work (always targeting the understanding of biological phenomena) has led to collaborations seeking to use the dynamic 3D lung images to model fluid dynamics in health and disease.

1. S. Choi, E.A. Hoffman, S.E. Wenzel, M. Castro, C.L. Lin. Improved CT-based estimate of pulmonary gas trapping accounting for scanner and lung-volume variations in a multicenter asthmatic study. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2014 Sep 15;117(6):593-603. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00280.2014. Epub 2014 Aug 7. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4157164.
2. C.L. Lin, M.H. Tawhai, E.A. Hoffman. Multiscale image-based modeling and simulation of gas flow and particle transport in the human lungs. Wiley Interdisciplinary Rev Syst Biol Med. 2013 Sep-Oct;5(5):643-55. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1234. Epub 2013 Jul 10. Review. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3763693.
3. K.S. Burrowes, E.A. Hoffman, M.H. Tawhai. Species-specific pulmonary arterial asymmetry determines species differences in regional pulmonary perfusion. Ann Biomedical Eng. 2009 Dec; 37(12):2497-509. doi: 10.1007/s10439-009-9802-2. Epub 2009 Sep 19. PubMed PMID: 19768544; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3056879.

Hoffman's laboratory has recently devised micro CT imaging methods applied to the intact mouse lung to quantitatively assess structure down to the alveolar level of young and old mouse lungs. Dr. Hoffman's recent work has led him to the investigation of vascular dysfunction in the etiology of emphysema based upon novel uses of dual energy multidetector row CT (DECT). A key contribution of Dr. Hoffman's work lies in the continued efforts to provide quantitative imaging tools for use in multi-center studies seeking to phenotyping of the normal and diseased lung.

1. D. Chon, K.C. Beck, B.A. Simon, H. Shikata, O.I. Saba, E.A. Hoffman. Effect of low-xenon and krypton supplementation on signal/noise of regional CT-based ventilation measurements. J Appl Physiol. 2007; Apr; 102(4):1535-44.
2. M.K. Fuld, A.F. Halaweish, J.D. Newell Jr, B. Krauss, E.A. Hoffman. Optimization of Dual-Energy Xenon-Computed Tomography for Quantitative Assessment of Regional Pulmonary Ventilation. Investigative Radiology. 2013 Sept; 48(9):629-37. PMC3873149.
3. M.K. Fuld, A.E. Halaweish, S.E. Haynes, A.A. Divekar, J. Guo, E.A. Hoffman. Pulmonary Perfused Blood Volume with Dual-Energy CT as Surrogate for Pulmonary Perfusion Assessed with Dynamic Multidetector CT. Radiology. 2013 Jun;267(3):747-56. PMC3662901.
4. D. Vasilescu, Z. Gao, E.R. Weibel, E.A. Hoffman. Assessment of Morphometry of Pulmonary Acini in Mouse Lung by Nondestructive Imaging using Multi-Scale Microcomputed Tomography. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012 October 16; 109(42): 17105-17110. Epub 2012 October 1. PMC3479519.

• 2012/08/01-2016/12/31
• 5R01HL112986, NIH/NHLBI
• Hoffman, Eric(PI)
• Multi-Center Structural & Functional Quantitative CT Pulmonary Phenotyping
• This proposed bioengineering research partnership seeks to take advantage of the emerging acquisistion technique of multi-spectral computed tomography (currently dual energy CT:DECT), careful evaluation of dose lowering methods, and novel approaches to statistical cluster analysis to expand the biomarkers used in multi-center studies to identify subpopulations of lung disease.
• Role: Principal Investigator

• 2009/02/01-2016/01/31
• HHSN268200900013C, Department of Health and Human Services
• SPIROMICS Radiology Center
• The objective of the Radiology Center for SPIROMICS is to propose and oversee the acquisition of state-of-the-art CT image data sets needed for the provision of lung phenotypes associated with COPD to facilitate genotype correlation, and which can serve as the baseline for the assessment of outcomes in COPD interventions.
• Role: Principal Investigator

• 2015/04/15-2019/03/31
• 1R01HL126838, NIH/NHLBI
• Hoffman, Eric(PI)
• Defining the Role of Early Pulmonary Vascular Disease in COPD
• This project evaluates the role of imaging-based measures of pulmonary vascular structure and function to identify smokers at risk of rapid emphysema progression and/or at risk of having frequent acute exacerbations of their COPD.
• Role: Principal Investigator

• 2007/070/1-2017/07/13
• 5R01HL089897, NIH/NHLBI
• Crapo(PI)
• (1 of 2) Genetic Epidemiology of COPD
• The major goal of this project is to develop an imaging protocol for comparative analysis and carry out airway wall thickness quantifications from CT scans in collaboration with National Jewish Imaging Center.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2014/08/01-2018/04/30
• 1R01HL120270, NIH/NHLBI
• Barr(PI)
• Novel Quantitative Emphysema Subtypes in MESA and SPIROMICS
• The primary goals of this project are to develop novel and robust image processing tools for the extraction of emphysema radiological features on CT scans, perform unsupervised clustering of emphysema radiological features on the large MESA cohort of patients to discover quantitative emphysema subtypes (QES), and to quantify the levels of normality for QES among homogeneous populations of non-smoking "normal" participants without respiratory symptoms and disease.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2008/08/28-2018/01/31
• 2R01HL093081, NIH/NHLBI
• Pulmonary Microvascular Blood Flow and Cor Pulmonale Parvus in Emphysema/COPD
• The major goal of this project is to accept and upload CT images from the four MESA-COPD scanning sites and to analyze them for measures of lung density, perform post- processing of data, and transmit results to the MESA Coordinating Center
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2008/09/01-2018/06/30
• 5P01HL091842, NIH/NHLBI
• Welsh(PI)
• PPG-Airway Physiology and Pathophysiology in a Porcine CF Model
• This project aims to discover how loss of CFTR function affects mucociliary transport, response of airways to viral invention, HC03-secretion and control of airway surface liquid pH, and bacterial killing of the airway surface.
• Role: Co-Investigator

• 2011/08/08-2017/05/31
• 5U01HL109257, NIH/NHLBI
• Castro(PI)
• Severe Asthma Research Program (SARPIII) - Washington University
• The major goal of this project is to serve as the data archive and analysis site for the SARP.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2013/08/15-2018/05/31
• 5U01HL114494, NIH/NHLBI
• Lin(PI)
• An Integrative Statistics-Guided Image-Based Multi-Scale Lung Model
• Theis project aims to build a new computational framework for assessment and prediction of lung function through integration of statistical analysis of population data with prediction of function in individual subjects via a multi-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) lung model, for improved patient phenotyping and patient-specific therapy.
• Role: Co-Investigator

• 2014/05/05-2018/04/30
• 1R01HL122438, NIH/NHLBI
• Han(PI)
• Parametric Response Mapping in COPD
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (CODP) is a highly prevalent but heterogeneous disorder with varying clinical presentations and rate of progression. Current disease staging and therapy is based only on spirometry and clinical characteristics. Thoracic imaging holds promise for characterizing COPD heterogeneity and identifying early disease, but standard techniques are limited by their inability to resolve emphysema and small airways disease.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2011/08/08-2017/05/31
• 5U01HL109168, NIH/NHLBI
• Jarjour(PI)
• Stability of Severe Asthma Phenotypes: Impact of Exacerbations (SARP III)
• The major goal of this project is to serve as the data archive and analysis site for the SARP.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2011/08/09-2017/05/31
• 5U01HL109152, NIH/NHLBI
• Wenzel(PI)
• Implications and Stability of Clinical and Molecular Phenotypes of Severe Asthma (SARP III)
• The major goal of this project is to serve as the data archive and analysis site for the SARP.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Iowa Subaward

• 2015/02/17-2016/02/16
• 1S10OD018526-01, NIH/NHLBI
• Hoffman, Eric(PI)
• Ultra-low Dose, High Seed, High Resolution, Multispectral, Multi-Source MDCT Scanner
• This high-end shared instrumentation grant allow for the upgrade of the current Siemens Flash to a Simens Force CT scanner. The new scanner will allow for scanning at as low as 10% of the current radiation dose. It will allow for a 30% reduction in iodine contrast agent, imaging of regional ventilation with krypton rather than xenon gas or with xenon gas at a large reduction in concentration. Both of these allow for the elmination of the anesthetice side effect of Xenon. In addition, the scanner will have up to 2-3 times the spatial resolution, providing the details needed to truly assess airway remodeling in COPD and Asthma.
• Role: Principal Investigator

• 2015/03/29-2016/03/30
• 5P30ES005605, NIEHS
• Thorne(PI)
• EHSRC Pilot Grant - Correlation of Pulmonary Structural and Functional Alterations in a Population Exposed to Indoor Cooking with Solid Biolfuels/Hutt Lung
• This project is focused on a pilot cohor of subjects in India for which a large amount of data will be collected including demographic/health questionnaires, computed tomography, pulmonary function testing, in home air quality measures, and biological samples.
• Role: Principal Investigator - Pilot Award

• 2015/07/01-2016/06/30
• 1S10OD018503, NIH/OD
• Sieren(PI)
• Non-Destructive Multi-Scale Micro-CT Imaging System
• This application seeks to obtain a nondestructive mulit-scale micro-CT imaging system, the Zeiss Xradia VersaXRM-520 to fill a research technology void at the University of Iowa.
• Role: Major User

• Cardiovascular Research Center
• Environmental Health Sciences Research Center
• Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
• Iowa Comprehensive Lung Imaging Center (I-CLIC)
• Iowa Institute for Biomedical Imaging