Personal Statement

I have devoted more than 15 years to the research of gene and stem cell therapies. This field holds great therapeutic potential. In my postdoctoral work, I developed an efficient and easily reproducible method to modify stem cells and to regenerate bone defects. The cell therapy approach was tested and found biomechanically valid and new bone tissue was comparable to the native bone. This is of enormous importance, since current clinical practice mostly involves artificial materials that are far from the native tissues in their biomechanical properties, which often leads to rejection and failure.

Currently, the Sheyn Laboratory is developing new applications for employing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in the field of skeletal tissue regeneration, particularly focusing on bone, tendon and intervertebral discs. In the Sheyn Lab, we anticipate these discoveries will bring the future of personalized medicine to clinical application sooner than we had ever imagined. Pluripotent stem cells can be derived from almost any cell type. The main focus of the lab is spine therapeutics and we employ various in vitro and in vivo model of disc degeneration. The second focus of the lab is in the field of sports medicine and stem cell based soft tissue regeneration therapies.

Our goal is to translate the knowledge we have gained using adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells over the years and apply it to the easily available and expandable iPSCs in the lab and the clinic in different human skeletal disorders.