Natasha Diba Sheybani, Ph.D.
About
The Sheybani Lab’s mission is centered on engineering innovative tools and paradigms that render cancer management less invasive, less toxic, more effective, and more personalized for cancer patients. Central to our efforts is a disruptive emerging platform technology called focused ultrasound (FUS) – which enables non-invasive, non-ionizing, and targeted deposition of acoustic energy into tumor tissues with high spatial precision. We are advancing applications of FUS for non-surgical tumor debulking, immuno-modulation and immunotherapy (e.g. therapeutic antibody, engineered T cell) delivery in highly complex and aggressive cancer settings, including metastatic breast cancer and brain tumors (high-grade gliomas, brain metastasis, pediatric brain tumors). Our lab also utilizes systems biology and imaging informatics approaches to integrate FUS with serial surveillance strategies like liquid biopsy (e.g. blood draws) and multimodality imaging (e.g. MRI, immuno-PET) to improve the precision, adaptability, and predictability of combinatorial cancer interventions. Our highly translational and multidisciplinary research group interfaces closely with multiple ongoing clinical trials at UVA that are evaluating FUS in aggressive cancer settings. As Research Director of UVA’s FUS Cancer Immunotherapy Center, Dr. Sheybani leads additional efforts beyond the lab to integrate and translate FUS immuno-oncology applications across UVA.
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, supported by the 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 joined the UVA BME faculty with the support of an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5). Her work has been recognized with awards from numerous professional societies as well as international health news outlets such as STAT News (Wunderkinds) and Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30" List in Science. Dr. Sheybani has served on multiple federal study sections and is an active member of the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU), serving as incoming ISTU Treasurer and Faculty Co-Advisor for ISTU’s Student Board since its launch in 2022.
Join Us
The Sheybani Lab is actively recruiting at all levels. Interested candidates are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Sheybani directly at sheybani@virginia.edu.
Education
Post-Doc in Oncology, Radiology, Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University (2020-2021)
Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia (2015-2020)
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (Honors), Virginia Commonwealth University (2012-2015)
"The Sheybani Lab operates at the nexus of therapeutic ultrasound, advanced imaging, and tumor immunology to deliver safer, more precise immunotherapy paradigms to cancer patients."