Natasha Sheybani

Natasha Sheybani is an American biomedical engineer who is an assistant professor of Biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA), a visiting instructor of oncology at Stanford University, and a senior scientist researcher (2021-2022) at the Focus Ultrasound Foundation. She is also an affiliate assistant professor in neurosurgery and radiology & medical imaging at UVA. Her research focuses on advancing non-invasive cancer treatment using focused ultrasound (FUS) and the manipulation of cancer using sound waves. She owns her own lab called the Sheybani Lab aided by funding from the National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award she received in 2021. She was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science in 2022 and a STAT Wunderkind in 2020. 
== Early life ==
Sheybani was born in Florida to Iranian immigrant parents and was raised in Central Virginia. Beginning at 14 years old, her interests in biology and mathematics were solidified with her work in a neuroscience lab under William Guido and a biomedical engineering lab under Hu Yang at Virginia Commonwealth University. At the biomedical engineering lab, she spent most of her time researching Type 1 diabetes and nanoparticle drug delivery for pediatric ocular diseases. For high school, she attended and graduated from the Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the Arts And Technology as a technology major. 
== Education ==
Natasha Sheybani began her undergraduate education at the age of 16 and earned her Bachelor of Science (with honors) in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015 when she was 19. She went on to earn a Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia in 2020 when she was 24.
Her Ph.D was completed with support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Robert R. Wagner Fellowship which provides funding for UVA graduate students. Sheybani was also UVA's first recipient of the NCI Predoctoral-to-Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00) during her graduate program in 2018.
== Research ==
=== Ph.D ===
At the University of Virginia, she worked with thermal ablation to target breast tumors with chemotherapy. Clinical trials commenced after she returned to UVA after her post-doc at Stanford University. 
=== Post doctorate ===
After receiving her Ph.D, she completed her post-doctoral work at Stanford University in Oncology, Radiology, and Biomedical Data Sciences from 2020 to 2021. While Sheybani completed her fellowship, she began work at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation as a Senior scientist. She worked in research programs at the foundation revolving around glioblastoma, gene therapy, and cancer immunotherapy under the direction of Ash Alizadeh and Daniel Rubin. Her dissertation concentrated on how focused ultrasound can trigger immune responses to primary or disseminated tumors. This information provided more insight into different immunotherapeutic approaches that could be used to treat cancer.
=== Career ===
During her post-doctorate degree at Stanford University, she received the National Institutes of Health Director's Early Independence Award in 2021 that allowed her to immediately go into her own independent research. She went back to UVA as a faculty and began her own research in the Sheybani Lab at 25. She became one of UVA's youngest ever engineering faculty members. She has also worked in the Price Lab at University of Virginia with Richard J. Price (Ph.D), the principle investigator. In May 2022, Sheybani was named the research director of the UVA Focused Ultrasound Immunotherapy Center.
==== Focused ultrasound (FUS) ====
Her research centers around focused ultrasound (FUS) which is a non-invasive, non-ionizing targeting system to attack tumor cells. It works to target solid cancers of the brain and the periphery system through immunomodulation and immunotherapy. The technology allows for acoustic energy to be disposed into the tissues which results in modulation in the tissue through thermal and mechanical means. FUS uses thermal effects by heating up the tissue through thermal ablation which can lead to destruction of tissue. It uses mechanical effects by massaging or fractionating the tissue. The ultrasound frequencies are well established, so their research is exploring the different consequences of these parameters. The sound waves can potentially act as a physical intervention for cancer treatments. 
==== Blood Brain Barrier ====
FUS can localize drug administration through opening of gaps in the Blood–brain barrier. As a detection tool for cancer, FUS exposes biomarkers in the blood which can be analyzed with liquid biopsies. Cancers, such as lymphoma, have more distinct biomarkers in the blood, but for cancer in the brain, FUS can help the cancer shed more biomarkers for detection. This technique is much less invasive of a procedure than regular practice tissue biopsies, especially with parts of the body that may be difficult to access, such as the brain. Her lab is also looking into multimodality imaging techniques to give more insight into therapeutic cancer progression monitoring, individualized treatment plans, and risk assessment.
== Notable publications ==
* Curley, Colleen T.; Sheybani, Natasha D.; Bullock, Timothy N.; Price, Richard J. (2017-08-23). "Focused Ultrasound Immunotherapy for Central Nervous System Pathologies: Challenges and Opportunities". Theranostics. 7 (15): 3608–3623. doi:10.7150/thno.21225. ISSN 1838-7640. PMC 5667336. PMID 29109764.
* Sheybani, N.D., A.R. Witter, W.J. Garrison, G.W. Miller, R.J. Price, T.N.J. Bullock (2021) Profiling of the Immune Landscape in Murine Glioblastoma following Blood Brain/Tumor Barrier Disruption with MR Image-guided Focused Ultrasound. J Neurooncol. DOI: 10.1007/s11060-021-03887-4. PMID 34734364.
* Clark, R.A., Z.G. Garman, R.J. Price, and N.D. Sheybani (2021) Functional Intersections Between Extracellular Vesicles and Oncolytic Therapies. Trends Pharmacol Sci. DOI: 10.1016/j.tips.2021.09.001. PMID 34598797.
* Sheybani, N.D., V.R. Breza, S. Paul, K.S. McCauley, S.S. Berr, G.W. Miller, K.D. Neumann, and R.J. Price (2021) ImmunoPET-Informed Sequence for Focused Ultrasound-Targeted mCD47 Blockade Controls Glioma. J Control Release. DOI:10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.01.023. PMID 33476735.
* Sheybani, N.D., A.J. Batts, A.S. Mathew, E.A. Thim, and R.J. Price (2020) Focused Ultrasound Hyperthermia Augments Release of Glioma-Derived Extracellular Vesicles with Differential Immunomodulatory Capacity. Theranostics. 10:7436-7447. PMID 32642004.
== Awards and honors ==
* 2022: Forbes 30 under 30 (Science)
* 2021: National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award
* 2020: STAT Wunderkind
* 2020: Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Young Investigator Award
* 2018: 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
* 2016: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Category:American people
Category:American neuroscientists
Category:American engineers