VISE Spring Seminar Natasha Sheybani, PhD
VISE Spring Seminar
to be led by
Natasha Sheybani, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering,
University of Virginia
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2022
Time: 12:15 p.m. Room Opens, 12:20 p.m. start
Location: Stevenson 5326
Talk title:
Immunoengineering Next-Generation Cancer Therapies with Focused Ultrasound
Abstract:
Despite the remarkable promise of cancer immunotherapy, a significant fraction of patients with solid tumors are yet unable to realize its unparalleled benefits. In this talk, I will introduce focused ultrasound (FUS) – a promising emerging technology for the non-invasive, non-ionizing, and precisely targeted deposition of acoustic energy into tumor tissues – as a strategy for immuno-modulation and immunotherapy delivery in primary and disseminated cancers of the brain and breast. I will provide an overview of (1) our pre-clinical work at the nexus of FUS, molecular imaging, and cancer immunotherapy and (2) the rich landscape for clinical translation of FUS treatment paradigms at UVA. Finally, I will discuss our proposed approach for ushering FUS into the era of precision immuno-oncology by leveraging advanced imaging, liquid biopsy, and artificial intelligence.
Bio:
Natasha Sheybani, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and (by courtesy) of Radiology & Medical Imaging and Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. Her research centers on investigating the use of focused ultrasound technology for potentiation of cancer immunotherapy in solid tumors of the brain and periphery. She is a recipient of the 2021 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (UVA’s first-ever recipient) and has formerly held the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the Robert R. Wagner Fellowship, and the NCI Predoctoral-to-Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00) (UVA’s first-ever recipient). Dr. Sheybani completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at UVA and her postdoctoral fellowship in Oncology, Biomedical Data Science and Radiology at Stanford School of Medicine. She has been recognized by health news website STAT as a “Wunderkind” and was recently elected to Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” List in Science.