Lab Members

Angel Chen is a fourth-year undergraduate psychobiology student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently assisting the Sheyn Lab with cell culture and nucleofections while learning more about translational research regarding stem cell therapies. Chen is passionate about the employment of induced pluripotent stem cells for bone and soft tissue regeneration and striving to pursue a career in medicine.

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.

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.

Wensen Jiang, PhD, is a biomaterials scientist with extensive experience in biomaterials and cell-materials interactions for various biomedical, pharmaceutical and translational applications. In his earlier research, Jiang demonstrated various efficient approaches to enhance the regenerative potential of bioresorbable materials. Such strategies include using novel compositional designs, surface modifications and nanofabrications to reduce the toxicity of biomaterials and improve cell-materials interactions. His recent work mainly investigates biomaterials-enabled minimally invasive cell therapies for tissue regenerations. His applied researches at the intersection of materials science and biomedicine aim to accelerate the clinical translations of biomaterials-based new treatments in minimally invasive and patient-specific cell therapies and regenerative medicine. Jiang has also continuously encouraged younger students to engage in science. He mentored eight undergraduate students and one master’s student by far. His mentorship on young scientists was sponsored by NSF MacREU program and the Department of Education Summer Bridge Program.

Giselle Kaneda received her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a minor in biology at Occidental College. As a former member of both the Junior and Senior U.S. National Karate Team, she represented the U.S. at multiple world and continental championships and was ranked 24th in the world in her division. During her time as an athlete, she developed an interest in the application of regenerative and stem cell therapies as a treatment for sports injuries. Since retiring from competition, she worked on an assortment of projects ranging from the use of amniotic allograph to treat arthritis pain to developing an alternate therapy for Parkinson’s disease using a rat model. She is currently assisting in multiple projects of the Sheyn Lab in cell culture, platelet rich plasma (PRP) analysis, differentiation assay and rat handling. In the future, she plans on pursuing a PhD in regenerative medicine and translational medicine with a focus on stem cell therapies.

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.

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.