Lab Members

Melissa Chavez is receiving her bachelor of science degree in biochemistry and biology from California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), and is currently enrolled in CIRM. Her previous undergraduate research studies involve the effects of traumatic brain injury on neural tissue in D. melanogaster. In the Sheyn Lab, she is currently studying the effect of the immune system on xenotransplantation of human stem cells to IVD.

Patricia Del Rio is a CIRM scholar and master’s student in biotechnology at California State University, Channel Islands (CI). Her previous research experience was assessing the roles of unknown proteins in Legionella pneumophila. She is currently working on regeneration of tendon following injury using 3D scaffolds and translational stem cells.

Finkel obtained his undergraduate degree in public health at Johns Hopkins and his MD degree at NYMC, where he took part in research of multimodal pain regiments surrounding total joint arthroplasty. In the Sheyn Lab, he is involved in multiple projects focusing on intervertebral disc degeneration.

Jiang is a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine scholar and an expert in biomaterials, tissue engineering and cell-based therapies for musculoskeletal disorders and degenerative diseases. His research informs new cell-based strategies for treating intervertebral disc degeneration and back pain. Accolades include: New Investigator Recognition Award by the Orthopaedic Research Society.

Giselle received her bachelor’s in kinesiology with a minor in biology from Occidental College. During her time as an athlete, she became interested in applying regenerative therapies for sports injuries. She is currently involved in a variety of projects including tendon regeneration, lower back pain modeling and intervertebral disc rejuvenation.

Julia Sheyn received a bachelor of science in pharmacy degree at HUJI. Julia joined the Koronyo Lab, where she worked on Alzheimer’s disease neuropathological assessments and therapies in transgenic mouse models. Currently in the Sheyn Lab, she is involved in projects involving reducing pain and neuronal damage after spine traumatic injury and developing new treatments of osteoarthritis utilizing bioinformatics.

Thomas Spaeter finished his doctoral degree at the Institute of Clinical Experimental Surgery, Saarland University in Homburg, Germany. He developed a novel pre-vascularization strategy for tissue implants by seeding them with so-called adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments (MVF)—biologically intact units of a microvasculature which can easily be isolated from adipose tissue.

Tang, a skilled pain surgeon in the field of minimally invasive medicine, holds a clinical medical doctoral degree from Capital Medical University in China. His current research focuses primarily on developing biomaterials-encapsulated cell therapies for the treatment of musculoskeletal diseases, such as intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and osteoarthritis (OA).

Jacob Wechsler received his bachelor of science degree in biology from UCLA. In the Sheyn Lab, he is focused on projects related to development of biomaterials for stem cell delivery. Jacob grew interested in the field because of his own sports injury history and is passionate about the employment of stem cells as a potential treatment method.

Victoria Yu is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University in the biomedical engineering program with a translational cell and tissue engineering focus. In the Sheyn Lab, Yu is assisting in tendon tissue engineering in vitro projects with molecular biology techniques and cell culture. She hopes to pursue graduate studies in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in the future.