Welcome to the Scheff Lab!


“The goal of our research is to investigate whether therapy targeted to peripheral neurons in the cancer microenvironment can alleviate pain and slow carcinogenesis.”


Lab News

Congratulations, Mona Yuan!

May 2, 2023

Congratulations to extern Mona Yuan for receiving the Carnegie Mellon Women’s Association Award! She graduates this year from CMU and will continue working in research prior to pursuing medical school.

Congratulations, Nicole Horan!

Congratulations to research technician Nicole Horan, who will be joining the CNUP graduate program this fall! While we will miss her personal and professional contributions to the Scheff lab, we are excited for her to move onto the next phase of her research career.

USASP 2023 Poster Presentations

Nicole Horan presenting Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Induces Nerve Injury and Adrenergic Receptor Plasticity Resulting in Sympathetically Maintained Pain

Mona Yuan presenting Morphine-induced Suppression of Anti-Tumor Immunity via Peripheral OPRM1 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

April 11 – 14, 2023

Researcher Nicole Horan and extern Mona Yuan presented posters at the Annual Scientific Meeting for the United States Association for the Study of Pain in Durham, NC. Both received travel awards to attend the event.

Welcome to the world, Arden!

October 26th, 2022

Congratulations to Research Professor Lisa McIlvried on the birth of her daughter, Arden! We are thrilled to report that everyone is healthy and happy.

Dr. Scheff selected as 2021 Rita Allen Award in Pain Scholar

December 17th 2021

Dr. Scheff was selected as the 2021 Rita Allen Award in Pain Scholar. The lab will receive will receive funding for three years for the project entitled “CGRP: The link between cancer pain and progression in oral squamous cell carcinoma.”