Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery (by courtesy), Assistant Professor of Radiology & Medical Imaging (by courtesy) Research Director of the UVA Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center
Bio
Post-Doc in Oncology, Radiology, Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University 2020-2021Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia 2020B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (Honors), Virginia Commonwealth University 2015
"We are working at the nexus of therapeutic ultrasound, advanced imaging, and tumor immunology to design and deploy precision cancer immunotherapy paradigms."
Natasha Sheybani, PhD
Dr. Sheybani leads a translational research program centered on innovating tools and paradigms for non-invasive precision cancer management. Specifically, her group seeks to advance the role of focused ultrasound (FUS) - a disruptive, emerging strategy for non-invasive, non-ionizing, and precisely targeted deposition of acoustic energy into tumor tissues – for immuno-modulation and immunotherapy delivery in solid cancers of the brain and periphery (e.g. glioblastoma, metastatic breast cancer). With the goal of ushering image-guided therapies like FUS into the burgeoning era of precision immuno-oncology, Dr. Sheybani’s lab also applies approaches in systems biology and imaging informatics to advance the role of other non-invasive strategies like liquid biopsy and multimodality imaging techniques (e.g. MRI, immuno-PET), respectively, with the intent of informing risk stratification, therapeutic monitoring, and individualized treatment paradigms involving FUS and/or cancer immunotherapy. The work of the Sheybani lab interfaces closely with multiple ongoing clinical trials at UVA that are evaluating FUS immunotherapy in metastatic breast cancer and other solid tumor settings.
Natasha Sheybani earned her B.S. (with Honors) in Biomedical Engineering as a Eugene P. Trani Scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University. She then completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia, with the support of an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Robert R. Wagner Fellowship. As a graduate student, she also became UVA’s first recipient of The NCI Predoctoral-to-Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00). Dr. Sheybani completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Oncology, Biomedical Data Science and Radiology at Stanford School of Medicine, and in tandem, served as a Senior Scientist at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. In 2021, Dr. Sheybani returned to UVA BME under the support of an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5). Dr. Sheybani holds courtesy appointments in Radiology & Medical Imaging and Neurosurgery at UVA, as well as a Visiting Instructorship in Oncology at Stanford. She has been previously recognized in health news website STAT’s annual list of Wunderkinds and, in 2022, was elected to Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30" List in Science.
Join Us
The Sheybani Lab is currently recruiting at all levels. Interested candidates are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Sheybani directly at sheybani@virginia.edu.
Awards
Forbes 30 Under 30 (Science) 2022
National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award2021
STAT Wunderkind 2020
Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Young Investigator Award2020
National Institutes of Health NCI Predoctoral-to-Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00)2018
Focused Ultrasound Foundation, Rising Star Award | International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound, Young Investigator Award | International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound, Young Investigator Award 2018
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship2016
Sheybani, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was also UVA's first-ever recipient of the prestigious NIH Director's Early Independence Award.
UVA Biomedical Engineer Receives NIH Director’s Early Independence Award
National Institutes of Health announced that Natasha Sheybani is the recipient of the prestigious NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, which is given to outstanding junior...
Health news site STAT has honored Natasha Sheybani, PhD, as one of the next generation of scientific superstars for her work in focused ultrasound, cancer immunology and nuclear medicine.
Profiling of the Tumor-Immune Landscape in Murine Glioblastoma following Blood Brain/Tumor Barrier Disruption with MR Image-guided Focused Ultrasound ABSJournal of Neuro-Oncology (Special Issue: Focused Ultrasound in Neuro-Oncology) (2021). Sheybani ND, Witter AR, Garrison WJ, Miller GW, Bullock TNJ, Price, RJ
Functional Intersections Between Extracellular Vesicles and Oncolytic Therapies ABSTrends in Pharmacological Sciences (2021).Clark RA, Garman ZG, Price RJ, Sheybani ND
ImmunoPET-informed sequence for focused ultrasound-targeted mCD47 blockade controls glioma ABSJournal of Controlled Release (2021). Sheybani ND, Breza VR, Paul S, McCauley KS, Berr SS, Miller GW, Neumann KD, Price RJ
Combination of Thermally Ablative Focused Ultrasound with Gemcitabine Controls Breast Cancer via Adaptive Immunity ABSJournal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2020). Sheybani ND*, Witter AR*, Thim EA, Yagita H, Bullock TNJ, Price RJ