John A. Shepherd, PhD
Principal Investigator · Interim Deputy Director & Chief Scientific Officer, UH Cancer Center · B.H. and Alice C. Beams Endowed Professor in Cancer Research
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!
Publications (672)
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SCI&U: Peer Health Coaching for the SCI Community; A Feasibility Study
Skeels SE, Pernigotti D, Shepherd J, Allin S, Shi Y, Jaglal S
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2026· doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2026.02.431 -
An Integrated Academic Oncology Ecosystem for Hawaiʻi and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands
Lim SJS, Yamauchi H, Yamauchi T, Sumida K, Shepherd J, Shomaker TS, Buenconsejo-Lum LE, Ueno NT
Cancers, 2026· doi:10.3390/cancers18091441 -
Ethnic Mixture and Body Mass Index as Modifiers of Breast Cancer Risk among Native Hawaiian Women: Insights from the Multiethnic Cohort
Valdez D, Abe JV, Bohmann P, Bogumil D, Wilkens LR, Marchand LL, Haiman CA, Shepherd JA, Maskarinec G
Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2026· doi:10.1158/1055-9965.epi-25-1101 -
Paving the way for improved action: how nuclear techniques can advance the assessment of malnutrition
Shertukde SP, Padmanabha R, Chung ST, Gaudichon C, Jones KS, Kelly P, Krebs NF, Kurpad A, Lamers Y, Lopez-Teros V, Melse-Boonstra A, Pereira FC, Prado CM, Roberts SB, Shepherd J, Winichagoon P, Wel...
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2025· doi:10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.06.003 -
Visual demonstration of weight loss and health risk improvement with a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist
Ramirez S, Yang R, Habibovic M, Kennedy S, Bennett JP, Shepherd JA, Thomas DM, Heymsfield SB
International Journal of Obesity, 2025· doi:10.1038/s41366-025-01842-1 -
Criminal Somatotypes and Ambivalent Lombrosianism in the United States, c . 1940–60
Shepherd J
, 2025· doi:10.5040/9781350577947.ch-018 -
Deep Learning Enables Large-Scale Shape and Appearance Modeling in Total-Body DXA Imaging
Bunnell A, Cataldi D, Glaser Y, Wolfgruber T, Heymsfield SB, Zonderman AB, Kelly TL, Sadowski P, Shepherd J
Lecture notes in computer science, 2025· doi:10.1007/978-3-032-06774-6_20 -
The Phantom Mass in the Transverse Sinus
Katunaric B, Shepherd J, Duvall L, Boettcher BT
Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, 2025· doi:10.1053/j.jvca.2025.09.013 -
High dietary total energy intake and energy density are associated with girls’ breast density during puberty
Carrasco C, Garmendia ML, Martínez-Arroyo A, Shepherd J, Pereira A
European Journal of Nutrition, 2025· doi:10.1007/s00394-025-03755-1 -
Characterizing cancer patterns in Okinawan vs. mainland Japanese Americans: The Multiethnic Cohort Study
Streicher SA, Guillermo C, Park S, Chiang CWK, Shepherd J, Sheng X, Bogumil D, Park SL, Cheng I, Lim U, Franke AA, Stram DO, Conti DV, Haiman C, Wilkens L, Marchand LL
medRxiv, 2025· doi:10.1101/2025.07.14.25331338 -
Prevalence of mammographically dense breasts in Guam
Evangelista RFP, Dulana L, Teria R, Jin SB, Paras G, Grino R, Shepherd J, Badowski G
Cancer Research, 2025· doi:10.1158/1538-7445.am2025-1029 -
Bone Mineral Content, Growth, and Renal Health of Infants With Perinatal Exposure to Maternal Dolutegravir Versus Efavirenz and Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate Versus Tenofovir Alafenamide: The Randomized IMPAACT 2010 (VESTED) Trial
Mbengeranwa T, Ziemba L, Brummel SS, Johnston B, Cassim H, Theron G, Ngqawana Z, Wabwire D, McCarthy K, Shepherd J, Lockman S, Chinula L, Stranix‐Chibanda L, investigators FTISTA
JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 2025· doi:10.1097/qai.0000000000003656 -
Pediatric Lateral Distal Femur Reference Ranges for Ages 1 to 18 years
Zemel BS, Shepherd J, Kazemi L, Kelly A, Stallings VA, Kecskemethy HH, Weber DR, Wasserman H, Kalkwarf HJ
Journal of Clinical Densitometry, 2025· doi:10.1016/j.jocd.2025.101594 -
Increased adiposity and impaired sleep are associated with severity of greater trochanteric pain syndrome: a cross-sectional study
Minetto MA, Busso C, Andrighetti M, Quilico E, Shepherd J, Heymsfield SB, Pietrobelli A
Frontiers in Medicine, 2025· doi:10.3389/fmed.2025.1718267 -
Comparing body composition techniques against an adapted multicompartment model in individuals with excess body weight
Montenegro J, Bennett JP, Oliveira CLP, Berg A, Sharma AM, Mereu L, Shepherd J, Siervo M, Walter J, Prado CM
Nutrition, 2025· doi:10.1016/j.nut.2025.113033 -
Artificial intelligence-enhanced handheld breast ultrasound for screening: A systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy
Bunnell A, Valdez D, Strand F, Glaser Y, Sadowski P, Shepherd J
PLOS Digital Health, 2025· doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0001019 -
The gSOS polygenic score is associated with bone density and fracture risk in childhood
Mitchell JA, Bradfield JP, McCormack SE, Chesi A, Kalkwarf HJ, Lappe JM, Oberfield SE, Duren DL, Shepherd J, Hankenson KD, Kelly A, Håkonarson H, Grant SF, Zemel BS
Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2025· doi:10.1093/jbmr/zjaf149 -
Prediction of mammographic breast density based on clinical breast ultrasound images using deep learning: a retrospective analysis
Bunnell A, Valdez D, Wolfgruber T, Quon BK, Hung K, Hernandez BY, Seto TB, Killeen J, Miyoshi M, Sadowski P, Shepherd J
The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, 2025· doi:10.1016/j.lana.2025.101096 -
Association of body composition measures to muscle strength using DXA, D3Cr, and BIA in collegiate athletes
Cataldi D, Bennett JP, Quon BK, Leong LT, Kelly TL, Binder AM, Evans JW, PRADO C, Heymsfield SB, Shepherd J
Scientific Reports, 2025· doi:10.1038/s41598-025-87918-4 -
3D convolutional deep learning for nonlinear estimation of body composition from whole body morphology
Tian IY, Liu J, Wong MC, Kelly NN, Liu YE, Garber AK, Heymsfield SB, Curless B, Shepherd J
npj Digital Medicine, 2025· doi:10.1038/s41746-025-01469-6 -
Tumor cell-adipocyte gap junctions activate lipolysis and contribute to breast tumorigenesis
Williams J, Camarda R, Malkov S, Zimmerman LJ, Manning S, Aran D, Beardsley A, Mark DVD, Nakagawa R, Chen Y, Berdan CA, Louie SM, Mahieu CI, Superville D, Winkler J, Willey E, Hutchins EJ, Gagnon J...
Nature Communications, 2025· doi:10.1038/s41467-025-62486-3 -
Race-neutral Pediatric Reference Ranges for Bone Mineral Density Predict Prospective Fractures in Childhood
Zemel BS, Winer KK, Kelly A, Freedman DS, Mitchell JA, Weber DR, McCormack SE, McWilliams T, Lappe JM, Oberfield SE, Shepherd J, Grant SF, Kalkwarf HJ
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2025· doi:10.1210/clinem/dgaf183 -
Methodological standards for body composition—an expert-endorsed guide for research and clinical applications: levels, models, and terminology
Prado CM, González MC, Norman K, Barazzoni R, Cederholm T, Compher C, Jensen GL, Abe T, Barbosa-Silva TG, Bosy‐Westphal A, Carmichael O, Earthman CP, Evans WJ, Fields DA, Genton L, Hu P, Kara M, Mi...
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2025· doi:10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.05.022 -
BUSClean: Open-source software for breast ultrasound image pre-processing and knowledge extraction for medical AI
Bunnell A, Hung K, Shepherd JA, Sadowski P
PLOS ONE, 2024· doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0315434 -
Artificial Intelligence-Informed Handheld Breast Ultrasound for Screening: A Systematic Review of Diagnostic Test Accuracy
Bunnell A, Valdez D, Strand F, Glaser Y, Sadowski P, Shepherd J
arXiv (Cornell University), 2024· doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.07322