About the Lab

The ImmunoEngineering Lab, a.k.a. the Zaharoff Lab, in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill focuses on the development of innovative, translatable vaccine and immunotherapy delivery platforms that will have high clinical impact in an immediate timeframe.

Our multidisciplinary research program utilizes the engineering design process to develop novel biomaterials-based strategies for localized immunotherapy delivery. Localized immunotherapy delivery is based on the principles that nearly all diseases can be managed through immunomodulation and that immunotherapies are safest and most effective if delivered directly to the affected tissue/organ. Our delivery systems exploit both natural and engineered biomaterials to control the context in which antigens and/or immunomodulators are introduced to the immune system. Controlling delivery allows us to:  (1) manipulate duration and intensity of immune responses; (2) limit systemic side effects; and (3) overcome local inflamed or suppressed microenvironments.