Darren Hoffman

Graduate Student

What is your hometown?

I graduated from high school in Bemidji, Minn., which is a town in the northwoods of Minnesota. I did my undergraduate work at Concordia College, a small, private school in Moorhead, Minn.

How or when did you become interested in science and medicine?

I can remember wanting to be a doctor when I was just a kid, and I started my undergraduate work with that goal in mind. But somewhere along the line, I found that medical school just wasn’t for me and graduate school might be a better use of my talents.

How or why did you choose the UI to attend graduate school?

One of my primary goals in coming to graduate school was preparing myself as a teacher of anatomy. I was very impressed with the UI Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in their dual commitments to a strong teaching mission as well as outstanding clinically based research.

Is there a teacher, mentor or Carver College of Medicine faculty member who has helped shape your education?

Certainly my mentor, Dr. Robin Davisson, has played the most important role in helping me to establish a professional identity for myself. She has encouraged me to excel and pursue my unique interests as far as I can. Several other members of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology have also been eager to provide a thoughtful ear or salient advice on numerous occasions.

What kinds of opportunities or advantages does being a graduate student at Iowa provide? What about challenges?

The best advantage for being at Iowa for me is having high-powered research opportunities working with leaders in the field, while still having the smaller town, close-knit community feel that I have enjoyed growing up in the Midwest. The biggest challenge for me was the first year of coursework. I felt under-prepared for some of the challenges associated with graduate courses in molecular biology and biochemistry coming from a broader liberal arts background where equal weight was placed on many other aspects of biology, such as ecology, botany and physiology.

You recently received one of only 10 Woodrow Wilson/Johnson & Johnson Women's Health Dissertation Fellowships awarded this year. The prestigious fellowship provides $6,000 for expenses related to completion of your dissertation. project, "Molecular Pathophysiology of Preeclampsia in a Novel Genetic Mouse Model." Please describe your research project.

Preeclampsia is a relatively common disease of pregnancy that can have potentially devastating consequences for both the mother and fetus. Our understanding and treatment of the disease have been limited because of difficulties in conducting research in the high-risk setting of the disease and also the lack of spontaneous animal models of the disease. Recently, our lab developed a new spontaneous mouse model of preeclampsia, and using this mouse model we have made many discoveries that are challenging to address in a clinical setting. My dissertation project has been focused on investigating the role of the placenta in preeclampsia disease process. We have discovered some of the proteins that are associated with poor early development of the placenta, one of the critical initial steps in the disease cascade. We have also identified free radicals as playing an important role in the disease and are attempting to treat the disease using an antioxidant strategy. One of our most exciting experiments is determining once and for all if the placenta is actually the principal causative agent in the disease (an underlying concept in most preeclampsia research) by transferring embryos from the model mouse strain into normal surrogate mothers.

Please describe your professional goals/interests.

My goal is to have a career where I am teaching anatomy, and also continuing to learn. I’m very interested in pursuing research in medical education in the future.

What are some of your outside interests?

I consider myself to be a film buff and spend a great deal of my time seeking out classic films or little-known independent features. I’m particularly a fan of documentaries. I had a music minor in college so I also spend a lot of time listening to music and while I’ve more or less retired the trumpet, my primary instrument, I do continue to play the piano frequently. I’ve even recorded a couple CD’s with a friend who I met through my research.

Please describe any professional/personal experiences that have helped shape you as an individual (volunteer work, travel, etc.).

Maybe the most important experience that led me to where I am now was volunteering at Birthright, a free pregnancy counseling and assistance center. While I worked there I really learned how important pregnancy is and generally how important women’s health issues are. This experience definitely guided my choice of research project, which deals with a specific disease of pregnancy. I also spent a short time between undergraduate and graduate school working as a substitute teacher at an elementary school. Working with children gave me so much insight into the education process and really motivated me to be the best teacher I can be.

Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your work?

I really believe that there is no place for ego in the work that I do. The research community is such a rich and diverse population that I would never expect to know all the answers on my own. I think the best work gets done when people are open to all possible viewpoints. Further, I think it is dangerous to attach your sense of self-worth to the state of your research because after all, who knows where the science might take you.

If you could change one thing about the world (or the world of biomedical research), what would it be?

In the world of biomedical research, there is tremendous pressure to produce useful results quickly. In the real world, things just don’t always happen the way you’d predict or in the desired time frame. Without the pressure from granting agencies and peers, perhaps more rigorous science could be done. However, without this pressure, the rate of progress in medicine would be drastically changed so it’s a tough trade-off.

What one piece of advice you would give to students who are interested in applying to graduate school?

Don’t forget to be yourself during graduate school. There’s really no reason why all this hard work has to be completely miserable. Having a good life away from the lab is the most important first step toward having a great graduate school experience.

What do you see as “the future” of biomedical research?

I think the future of biomedical research is in good collaborative science. We’ve now discovered that most diseases are incredibly complex and involve many systems and molecular pathways. Meanwhile, specialization has become even more narrow and focused. The only way we can come out on top is through expert collaborations and interdisciplinary communication.