He later conducted research into the role of lipid disturbance in childhood as a precursor of coronary artery disease and his recognition in 1960 of the rare condition of abetalipoproteinaemia.

Herbert Wolff was a doctor, who served in the German Army during World War I, and during the interwar period, lived as a comfortable family in Germany.

[3] In 1944, close to the end of World War II, Wolff joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, attaining the rank of Captain, and was in charge of a smallpox hospital.

He discovered Abetalipoproteinemia, a disorder of blood lipids, that interferes with the normal absorption of fat and fat-soluble vitamins from food, and designed new special diets for babies with phenylketonuria, an inborn error of metabolism that results in decreased metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine[3] Wolff also provided the first description of the genetic disorder, i.e. the chromosomal abnormality that leads to Edwards syndrome.

[3][4] Wolff was the first trained scientist to work within pediatrics, in a clinical chair in the UK, and used the position to push the scientific based treatment of babies and the very young.

[4] During his time at the institute, Wolff turned was as essentially a collection of pre-war cottage hospitals into a world class centre for children.

[3] Wolf's work after World War II helped to establish the formation of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.