Meet our physicians. One team. One standard. A physician decides.

Celva's physician team is Dr. Cesar Amescua, Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño and Dr. Alejandro Castillo, at Hospital Angeles, Tijuana. They review every case, and the people who design your protocol are the same people in the exam room.

Celva 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.

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

Celva didn't start as a stem-cell clinic. It started as a conversation, repeated over years, 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

    Dr. Amescua begins what will become nearly 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 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 opens inside Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, deliberately sited there for the hospital infrastructure, the cGMP lab on site, where the cells are grown rather than shipped in, the COFEPRIS regulatory pathway, and the proximity to patients in San Diego and beyond.

  3. Early on

    Neurologic conditions first

    The earliest patients came for neurologic conditions, the complex cases conventional care had already screened out. They needed careful, longer evaluations, and that set the standard for how every case is read here.

  4. Then

    Longevity and musculoskeletal follow

    The work broadened. Longevity and systemic IV therapy came in, alongside a growing musculoskeletal practice that treats joints and the structures around them rather than chasing a single symptom.

  5. Today

    Nearly 17 years on

    What those years have not changed is the rule the practice opened with. The people who design your protocol are the same people in the exam room, Dr. Amescua alongside Dr. Ambrosio Nuño and Dr. Castillo. No sales staff inside the clinical conversation, and that is not going to change.

Every case reviewed by a physician team.

Your first call is with a Celva patient coordinator who gathers your case. The physician team in Mexico, with nearly two decades of regenerative medicine work behind it, then reviews independently. Your medical questions are answered by clinicians who know the science, the limits of the evidence, and which patients are declined, and why.

Portrait of Dr. Cesar Amescua, Medical Director at Hospital Angeles

Dr. Cesar Amescua, MD

Medical Director · Founding physician

Medical degree
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Postgraduate
Regenerative medicine & tissue engineering, nearly two decades
Clinical focus
Pain medicine and anesthesia; interventional spine and joint procedures; MSC protocol design
Hospital affiliation
Hospital Angeles, Tijuana

Dr. Amescua has spent nearly two decades on mesenchymal stem cell protocols and the broader machinery of tissue engineering. With a background in pain medicine and anesthesia, he is the spine specialist and main treating physician, the one who leads the interventional spine and joint procedures. He heads Celva's physician team at Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, that reviews every Celva case. He or someone trained directly under him is the attending physician on every treatment day.

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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.

Portrait of Dr. Rocío Ambrosio Nuño, Anesthesiologist at Hospital Angeles

Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño, MD

Anesthesiologist · Sedation & patient safety

Medical degree
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
Residency
Anesthesiology, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa
Specialty training
Interventional procedures & regenerative medicine, under Dr. Amescua
Focus
Twilight sedation, IV infusion and injection 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.

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She brings particular care to the comfort and safety side of MSC delivery: optional twilight sedation for 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 choose twilight sedation for a direct injection, she is the physician running it and watching your vitals the whole time.

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

Focus & training

  • Safety protocol refinement for same-day IV MSC infusion
  • Clinical training under Dr. Amescua, regenerative procedural medicine
  • Anesthesiology residency, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa
Portrait of Dr. Alejandro Castillo, Interventional Radiologist at Hospital Angeles

Dr. Alejandro Castillo, MD

Interventional Radiologist · Imaging guidance & evidence review

Degree
MD · interventional radiology
Focus
Image-guided procedures (ultrasound and fluoroscopy), imaging review, clinical data review
Role at Celva
Reviews each patient's imaging, guides the needle in the suite, and supports collaborative case review; training in interventional procedures under Dr. Amescua

Dr. Castillo is an interventional radiologist. Before your procedure he reviews your imaging with you and walks through the treatment plan; in the suite he runs the ultrasound or fluoroscopy that guides each targeted injection. He is also training under Dr. Amescua in interventional spine and direct injection procedures.

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Dr. Castillo reads the literature so the clinical team stays current with what the evidence actually supports, where results are inconsistent, what is promising but undercooked, and how protocols should change as the science matures.

The physician team reviews each case collaboratively with a strong focus on treatment appropriateness, patient selection, safety, and clear expectation-setting. Protocol decisions, contraindications, and communication standards are reviewed internally to help ensure patients receive medically appropriate recommendations and transparent guidance.

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

More people work on your case than you will meet. These are the ones you will.

  • Celva patient coordinator in scrubs

    Patient coordinator

    Concierge, patient processing & after care

    They line up your appointments, hotel and driver before you arrive, then keep your follow-ups on the calendar. Most of their work is done before you land.

  • Celva dedicated driver in the Hospital Angeles lobby

    Dedicated driver

    Transport

    Same driver both legs of the day. Car seats four, bottled water, phone charger. Knows the lanes.

  • Celva on-site patient coordinator in CELVA scrubs, arms folded, standing in the clinic interior

    On-site coordinator

    On-site support, patient coordinator

    She meets you at the entrance and stays all day. What goes wrong in a foreign hospital is usually not knowing where to go, who to ask, or what a form says. She handles all of it.

  • Celva stem cell lab technician in CELVA scrubs, arms folded, standing in the clinic interior

    Stem cell lab technician

    Cell processing

    They prepare your dose on the morning of treatment and run the checks that clear it. Then they carry it into your suite themselves.

  • Celva lead infusion nurse in CELVA scrubs

    Lead infusion nurse

    Nursing

    Takes your vitals, places the IV, stays on the floor for the full infusion and the observation window that follows it.

  • Celva treatment floor nurse in CELVA scrubs

    Treatment floor nurse

    Nursing

    Posted at the treatment-floor desk through your visit. When any part of your care needs an extra set of hands, she is already there.

Three principles every patient experiences directly.

Physician team evaluation first.

Every patient's case is reviewed by Celva's medical team before any treatment is recommended. We do not pre-sell protocols. The intake is a clinical workup, not a pitch.

The physician team decides.

Decline when the team can't help.

The physician team turns away patients they don't believe they can meaningfully help. That is what makes the outcomes credible and the team worth talking to. Saying no when it is the right answer is part of the standard, not an exception to it.

No is a complete sentence.

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.

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, heavy before/after reels, a hard close on the first call. We are a different operation. Here is the honest comparison.

What patients encounter
Typical clinic abroad
Celva
First contact
Sales coordinator, scripted pitch, hard close on the first call
Celva patient coordinator gathers your case; Celva's medical team reviews independently. A clinical review first, never a pitch.
Who designs the protocol
Often a templated package; small variations, sometimes undisclosed
Celva’s medical team, designed against your actual chart, individualized.
Who delivers the treatment
May be different from the person who sold you the protocol
One of the physician team that reviewed your case.
Decline rate
Rarely published.
A significant share of inquiries are declined. 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.
Physician team licensed in Mexico, regulated by COFEPRIS. 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.

Inside Hospital Angeles, not a standalone clinic.

A patient entering a Siemens Magnetom Vida MRI at Hospital Angeles, technician at the console

Location

Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, Baja California

Full-service private hospital. Our suite sits inside it, which means ICU, emergency, imaging, pharmacy, and surgical support are in the same building, not across town.

Laboratory standard

Cleanroom, cGMP processes

Cell preparation happens in a cleanroom environment operated by the medical team, following current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) processes. The cells are manufactured here, not bought from an outside lab. Every batch is tracked chain-of-custody from preparation to infusion.

Regulatory

Physician team licensed in Mexico · regulated by COFEPRIS

Treatments are delivered by the physician team at Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, regulated by COFEPRIS (Mexico's federal health authority). Most MSC therapies fall outside the FDA's approved-product pathway in the United States, we say so plainly.

Access

25 to 30 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.

The paper trail, in one place.

Regulatory
COFEPRIS
The physician team is licensed in Mexico. Hospital Angeles is regulated by COFEPRIS.
Hospital
Hospital Angeles
Private hospital system. The physician team's clinical suite operates inside the Tijuana campus.
Lab standard
cGMP
Cleanroom environment with documented Good Manufacturing Practice processes.
Medical licensing
MX Federal
All treating physicians hold current Mexican federal medical licenses.
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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.
Follow-up
Structured
Follow-up calls at 1 week, then at 1, 3 and 6 months, then once a year, by phone or video.
Patient safety
Hospital-grade
ICU, emergency, imaging and pharmacy in the same building 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

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

Your first call is with a Celva patient coordinator. They collect your case and pass it to Celva's medical team for independent review. No sales process, no pressure, no automated funnel. You ask your questions. The physician team gives you honest answers, including whether they think they can help. If they can't, they'll say so.

Book a call →

About 15 min · Celva patient coordinator
No commitment. The physician team reviews your case after.