Natasha Sheybani, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and CVRC member, became the first UVA researcher to receive an Era of Hope Scholar Award from the Department of Defense. The $5.5 million award, the only one issued by the DoD this year, will fund Sheybani’s research, using focused ultrasound (FUS) to improve breast cancer treatment and patient outcomes.
While most associate ultrasound with imaging, Sheybani’s research focuses on the therapeutic uses of ultrasound. FUS tunes sound waves to precisely target tumors. This technique allows the Sheybani lab to directly damage cancerous tissue or stimulate the immune system around it—one of their primary research avenues. Her team aims to understand how FUS can influence immune cells, alter the tumor microenvironment, and in particular, enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapies. Tuning FUS parameters can modulate immune cell signaling, extracellular vesicles, and other components of the tumor microenvironment to make them more susceptible to existing treatments. Thus far, Sheybani’s research has targeted high-risk breast cancers and adult and pediatric brain cancers – with new projects ramping up in ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
The Era of Hope Scholars Award emphasizes patient advocacy, building dialogue between breast cancer survivors and caregivers to demystify the research process, thereby ensuring patient perspectives are actively incorporated into research directions. “This is going to define a new era for our lab because we’re going to start, in partnership with the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center, a coalition to bring to the table researchers like me, trainees, patient advocates, and other stakeholders from the community to discuss a topic critical to our catchment area – breast cancer. We’re going to build an infrastructure where we can sustainably tear down walls between researchers and patients,” Sheybani explains.
UVA Health was an early leader in focused ultrasound therapies, and this award will further the university’s preeminence in the field. Sheybani, currently the Director of UVA’s Focused Ultrasound Institute, received her initial training in the technique during her PhD training at UVA. “This grant gives us the vote of confidence and resources to put a sincere effort into a goal that I came back to UVA with, which was delivering on advancements in FUS technology for breast cancer,” says Sheybani.