About Us
The Shepherd Research Lab (SRL) is a group of research scientists that create novel imaging biomarkers for the detection of risk for cancer and metabolic diseases. Our mission is to act as a translational catalyst between computational imaging science and cancer research.
About John A. Shepherd, PhD
Dr. Shepherd is the Chief Scientific Officer of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and the B.H. and Alice C. Beams Endowed Professor in Cancer Research at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. He is also a Fulbright Scholar, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), and a former President of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry. He received his PhD in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia and then completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biophysics at Princeton University. From there he went on to develop body composition and bone density algorithms for a major women’s health company and his patents are the basis for the accuracy of that company’s body composition algorithms. He then joined the Radiology Department of the University of California San Francisco and led his research group for 19 years studying a wide variety of imaging biomarkers for breast cancer, obesity, and osteoporosis using advanced machine-learning techniques. For the past 8 years, he has been with the University of Hawaii Cancer Center where he is the Director of the Hawaii Pacific Islands Mammography Registry which is currently monitoring over 125k women for developing breast cancer risk models in this population with high disparity and underrepresentation. He also co-hosts the biennial International Breast Density and Risk Assessment Workshops with the next workshop to be held on the Island of Maui in June, 2027. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2005, led 6 R01-funded studies, and published over 400 peer-reviewed publications that have been referenced over 30,000 times. Lastly, he is an avid surfer, cyclist, and island ridge hiker!
Find Dr. Shepherd online: UH Cancer Center ↗ · Google Scholar ↗ · LinkedIn ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
The Team
SRL is comprised of research scientists innovating detection methods for cancer and metabolic risk through medical imaging. The lab takes pride in the benefits our studies bring to the local community on Oʻahu.
University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center
The UH Cancer Center holds one of only 71 NCI-designated research organization designations in the United States — and is the only one in the Pacific. Continuously NCI-designated since 1996, the facility houses 300 research faculty and staff in a world-class building completed in 2013.
Read more at uhcancercenter.org ↗
Body Composition Lab
A lab facility within the UH Cancer Center offering measurements in Body Composition, Exercise Physiology, and Energy Metabolism.
Partners and Support
Our research is supported by partner companies through funding and collaboration.