Celva Bio / About
§ 006 · About · Why Celva exists

Three people.
One standard.
No middle layer.

Celva Bio exists because a specific kind of patient keeps finding us, informed, usually tired, often told by conventional medicine that there's nothing left to try. They don't need a sales funnel. They need a serious clinical conversation and a team that will say no when no is the honest answer. That is what we built.

Dr. Cesar Amescua, Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño, Dr. Alejandro Castillo Tijuana · Est. 2009
§ 006.1 · How Celva came to be

Not a clinic that happened.
A clinic we built on purpose.

Celva Bio didn't start as a stem-cell clinic. It started as a conversation, repeated over a decade, between Dr. Amescua and patients who had run out of options inside the US healthcare system. Every version of that conversation had the same shape.

  1. 2007

    Dr. Amescua begins MSC work

    UNAM medical degree in hand, Dr. Amescua begins what will become two decades of hands-on work in mesenchymal stem cell protocols and tissue engineering, initially in academic and institutional settings.

  2. 2009

    The pattern becomes obvious. Celva Bio opens.

    Over years of consults, a pattern emerges: the patients who benefit most from regenerative medicine are the ones already screened out by conventional options. They need longer evaluations, not shorter ones. Celva Bio opens inside Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, deliberately sited there for the hospital infrastructure, the COFEPRIS regulatory pathway, and the proximity to patients in San Diego and beyond.

  3. 2022

    Dr. Castillo joins as research consultant

    Dr. Alejandro Castillo joins in a skeptical-review role: reading the literature so the clinical team doesn't drift into overclaiming. The way we describe outcomes to patients sharpens noticeably afterward.

  4. 2024

    Dr. Ambrosio Nuño joins

    Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño, anesthesiology residency complete, joins after training directly under Dr. Amescua. The procedural side of every protocol lives with her.

  5. Today

    Three people. Same room. Every protocol.

    Celva Bio runs on the same rule it started with: the people designing the protocol are the same people in the exam room. No coordinator layer. No sales staff inside the clinical conversation. That has not changed and is not going to.

§ 006.2 · The medical team

Every patient seen
by a physician.

Celva Bio does not route medical questions through a coordinator. Your evaluation is conducted by a physician with two decades of regenerative medicine work on the wall behind them. Your questions are answered by someone who knows the science, the limits of the evidence, and which patients we turn away, and why.

§ 01 / Medical Director
C.A. Medical Director

Dr. Cesar Amescua, MD

Medical Director · Founding physician
Medical degree
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Postgraduate
Regenerative medicine & tissue engineering, 20+ years
Clinical focus
MSC protocol design, joint & systemic regenerative therapy
Hospital affiliation
Hospital Angeles, Tijuana

Dr. Amescua has spent two decades on mesenchymal stem cell protocols and the broader machinery of tissue engineering. He leads Celva Bio's clinical program, and either he or someone trained directly under him conducts every physician consultation on this site.

His work sits exactly where it has to: between what the published evidence actually supports and what the exam room actually looks like on a Tuesday morning. He tells patients what the research says, what it doesn't, and whether their specific case is a good match. That's the job. None of the softer parts of medicine are optional for him either, how a patient is greeted, who walks them through the hospital, whether their family is looped in. He notices.

Training at UNAM and a long run of hands-on clinical research shape how he thinks about regenerative medicine: less marketing, more mechanism. He is skeptical of anyone in this field who isn't.

Published & presented work
  • 2022 Clinical outcomes in intra-articular MSC therapy for knee osteoarthritis, Regenerative Medicine Mexico, vol. 14
  • 2019 Tissue engineering protocols for orthopedic regeneration, Conference presentation, Guadalajara
  • 2016 Comparative review of allogeneic vs. autologous MSC preparation, Co-authored, institutional review
§ 02 / Physician, Regenerative Medicine
R.A.N. Physician

Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño, MD

Physician, Regenerative Medicine · Procedural & safety lead
Medical degree
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
Residency
Anesthesiology, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa
Specialty training
Interventional procedures & regenerative medicine, under Dr. Amescua
Focus
Targeted MSC injections, IV infusion monitoring, patient safety protocols

Dr. Ambrosio Nuño completed her anesthesiology residency at Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa and then trained directly under Dr. Amescua in interventional procedures and regenerative medicine. An anesthesiology background means she thinks about dosing, monitoring, and patient safety the way most clinicians think about breathing. Automatically.

She brings particular care to the procedural side of MSC delivery: targeted joint injections, IV infusion monitoring, the safety checks that make same-day treatment inside Hospital Angeles run smoothly for patients flying in from across the US. If you're getting treated, she is almost certainly the physician holding the needle.

The patients who rate their experience highest are usually the ones who met her first. That is not a coincidence.

Focus & training
  • Ongoing Safety protocol refinement for same-day IV MSC infusion
  • 2021 Clinical training under Dr. Amescua, regenerative procedural medicine
  • 2019 Anesthesiology residency, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa
§ 03 / Regenerative Research Consultant
A.C. Research Consultant

Dr. Alejandro Castillo, MD

Regenerative Research Consultant · The person who pushes back
Degree
MD · joined Celva 2022
Focus
Clinical data review, protocol refinement, literature scan
Role at Celva
Skeptical evaluation of emerging regenerative evidence
Reports to
No one, effectively, that's the point

Dr. Castillo reads the literature so the clinical team can focus on patients. His role is skeptical evaluation: what the data actually shows, where results are inconsistent, what is promising but undercooked, and how protocols should change as the science matures.

Regenerative medicine is a field where claims sometimes run ahead of evidence. Keeping someone on the team whose job is to push back on that is the reason we feel comfortable saying what we can and can't promise. He is specifically empowered to tell the rest of us we are wrong, loudly, in writing. That shows up in how we talk to patients about outcomes.

He is also the reason our FTC disclosure and the language on this site is phrased the way it is. No overclaiming. No hedging in the other direction either.

What he reads
  • Weekly Cochrane and systematic reviews in regenerative medicine
  • Monthly MSC clinical trial registry scan (ClinicalTrials.gov, EU CTR)
  • Ongoing Journal of Translational Medicine, Stem Cell Reports, Cytotherapy
§ 006.3 · How we work

Three principles every patient
experiences directly.

01

Physician evaluation first.

Every patient is evaluated by a physician before any treatment is recommended. We do not pre-sell protocols. We do not quote prices before we understand your case. The consult is a clinical assessment, not a pitch.

§ No coordinator medicine.
02

Decline when we can't help.

We turn away patients we don't believe we can meaningfully help. That is what makes our outcomes credible and our team worth calling. Saying no when it is the right answer is part of the standard, not an exception to it.

§ No is a complete sentence.
03

Transparent about evidence.

Regenerative medicine is a moving field. We tell patients what is well-supported, what is promising but uncertain, and what we don't yet know. No overclaiming. No hedging in the other direction. The same standard lives in how we write the site.

§ Evidence, not enthusiasm.
§ 006.4 · Where we sit in the market

Not another stem-cell clinic abroad.

If you have researched regenerative medicine for more than a weekend, you have already seen the pattern: polished websites, vague pricing, heavy before/after reels, a coordinator who won't put a physician on the phone. We are a different operation. Here is the honest comparison.

What patients encounter
Typical clinic abroad
Celva Bio
First contact
Patient coordinator, sales script, price quoted within minutes
Physician call. Zero price discussion until we understand your case.
Who designs the protocol
Often a templated package; small variations, sometimes undisclosed
Dr. Amescua or Dr. Ambrosio, on your actual chart, individualized.
Who delivers the treatment
May be different from the person who sold you the protocol
Same physician who evaluated you. Every time.
Decline rate
Rarely published. Often close to zero in practice.
Meaningful. Neurologic cases especially. We say no in writing.
Facility
Standalone clinic; hospital relationship unclear
Inside Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, full hospital infrastructure.
Regulatory posture
Often vague. Sometimes phrased to imply US approval.
COFEPRIS-authorized in Mexico. FDA status stated plainly.
Claims about outcomes
Testimonial-heavy, selective, often overclaim
Ranges, not promises. Dr. Castillo reviews our language.

This is not a moral claim about other clinics. It is a description of how we run, so that patients who want this approach can find us and the ones who want something else can go elsewhere. Both outcomes are fine.

§ 006.5 · The facility

Inside Hospital Angeles,
not a standalone clinic.

Location
Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, Baja California
Full-service private hospital. Our suite sits inside it, which means ICU, imaging, pharmacy, and surgical support are on the same floorplate, not across town.
Laboratory standard
ISO-7 clean room · cGMP processes
Cell preparation happens in a controlled environment to ISO-7 and cGMP standards. Every batch is tracked chain-of-custody from preparation to infusion.
Regulatory
COFEPRIS-authorized · Mexican federal health authority
Our cell-based therapies are authorized under COFEPRIS (Mexico's equivalent of the FDA). Most MSC therapies fall outside the FDA's approved-product pathway in the United States, we say so plainly.
Access
45 minutes from San Diego · concierge transport included
Most patients are crossing the border the day of treatment. Transport, escort through the hospital, and return logistics are not left to you.
§ 006.6 · Credentials & affiliations

The paper trail,
in one place.

Regulatory
COFEPRIS
Authorized in Mexico for cell-based therapies. Registration current.
Hospital
Hospital Angeles
Private hospital system. Our clinical suite operates inside the Tijuana campus.
Lab standard
ISO-7 · cGMP
Clean-room classification and current Good Manufacturing Practice processes.
Medical licensing
MX Federal
All treating physicians hold current Mexican federal medical licenses.
Professional
UNAM · UABC · UAS
Medical degrees and residencies from nationally accredited Mexican institutions.
FDA status
Stated plainly
Most MSC therapies fall outside the FDA's approved-product pathway in the US. Treatment occurs in Mexico.
Insurance
Out-of-pocket
US health insurance does not cover regenerative therapies abroad. We will not pretend otherwise.
Patient safety
Hospital-grade
ICU, imaging, pharmacy, and emergency response on the same floorplate as treatment.
We take carefully selected patients through regenerative care. Physician-led, a transparent process, the concierge piece handled. It is not for everyone. It is not supposed to be.
Dr. Cesar Amescua, Medical Director
§ 006.7 · Next step

The fastest way to know if we fit
is a conversation.

A consult is a direct physician call. No sales process, no pressure, no automated funnel. You ask your questions. We give you honest answers, including whether we think we can help. If we can't, we'll say so.

Book an evaluation →
45 min · Dr. Amescua or Dr. Ambrosio Nuño
No consultation fee. A direct physician call.