Dr. David Zaharoff, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, has taught at the University of Arkansas College of Engineering for two years. He earned degrees in mechanical and biomedical engineering before beginning his teaching career at Duke University, as a teaching assistant. In addition to teaching, research and mentoring students, he serves as faculty adviser for the Biomedical Engineering Society.
When he’s not teaching or conducting research, Zaharoff spends time with his three children, all under the age of six.
“They’re everything to me,” he said. “They get first dibs on my time.”
How I got into engineering
Zaharoff started college as a saxophone performance major, but his parents required him to choose a second, more applicable major.
“They wouldn’t pay for college unless I chose a ‘real’ major, too. So I was a double major in music performance and engineering,” he said. “Turns out engineering is a lot easier.
Zaharoff began studying mechanical engineering before finding his focus during junior year of his undergraduate while applying to grad school. He decided to enter biomedical engineering and ruled out medical school.
He chose his educational path because he wanted to find solutions to human body malfunctions, so that treatment could be more affective.
“I wanted to enter biomedical engineering—what more complex machine is there to engineer than that? I wanted to design the ‘car’ in the first place, have the ultimate impact instead of placing a band-aid over it.”
Scientist Role Model
Zaharoff admires the work of thousands of engineers, physicians and other scientists, but has no central, guiding role model in his field.
“There is no one person I look up to because those who achieve success are solely focused.”
He finds the most successful people to be self-centered, and wanted his life to have personal success as well as professional success.
“You paint yourself in a corner if you choose” a role model, he said. “Take Einstein…he was brilliant, but could you imagine what it would be like to live with him? My respect for someone requires a balance of work and home life.”
University of Arkansas experience
Dr. Zaharoff came to the University of Arkansas following his training at the National Career Institute.
“I sent out many applications and found that Fayetteville was the best fit for me- for the research me, the teaching me, the family me,” he said.
His time as a teaching assistant at Duke University gave him a perspective of what sets University of Arkansas students apart.
“They’re not aggressive enough. I would like students to take more ownership in their future- set a path and be determined about it,” he said.
As a professor ready and willing to help students, he said he’d like to see more students take advantage of office hours.
“Any goal worth achieving, you have to be aggressive to find it. Michael Phelps didn’t get where he is without aggressively pursuing his goals.”
Research
“What I do can be seen as essentially vaccine delivery, something that we can control that response of the vaccine based on delivery.”
Zaharoff is searching for unique, improved solutions in the biomedical field. Instead of living in a world where cancer treatment is limited to surgery, chemo or radiation, he’s looking for something else.
“I’m looking for a more elegant way to treat cancer- to make the immune system recognize cancer anywhere in the body, even if the doctor can’t see it.”
Zaharoff’s current research focuses on bladder cancer, which is diagnosed early when tumors are very small, but it has the highest recurrence rate and the highest cost to treat per patient of any cancer.
To prevent bladder cancer recurrence, “We have designed a novel immunotherapy based on the local delivery of an immune stimulating protein called interleukin-12 (IL-12) directly into the bladder. We formulate IL-12 with a thick polymer solution that allows the IL-12 to stay in the bladder for an extended period of time. IL-12 activates the immune cells to attack and destroy the bladder tumor,” according to Zaharoff’s website.
In the process, the immune system "learns" about the cancer to prevent it from coming back.
“We are currently working on improving our immunotherapy formulation; determining which immune cells are involved during tumor regression; and collaborating with our colleagues at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD to translate this immunotherapy into clinical trials.”
For a list of research publications, see http://comp.uark.edu/~zaharoff/Dr._Zaharoff.html.
Student Involvement
Zaharoff oversees the U of A chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a registered student organization that began in Fall 2009.
“In the group, they can partner with companies, community service, network with students in Arkansas and network nationwide.”
His advice for success as a biological and agricultural engineering student is to have a goal.
“Students seem afraid that their options are going to leave. They’re always saying that they’re keeping their options open,” he said.
Instead, he strongly advocates the choice of a direction, making it easier to succeed with a stronger focus.
To ensure the best possible job opportunities, students need to help themselves, to be strong advocates for themselves.
“You need valuable experience,” he said. “Get lab experience, the educational experience of extra-curricular activities…and to be job-ready, have work experience.
Zaharoff believes that potential employers are probably not aware that University of Arkansas has a biomedical engineering program, and especially are not aware of the quality of students it produces.
“It’s critical for our faculty and students to engage and educate the employer by aggressively seeking internships, co-ops and jobs,” he said.
“Employers have no clue about Arkansas biomedical engineering, so you need to show up on their doorstep to show them.”
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