the shepherd lab

“The occasional success, to the striver, 
  is worth EVERYTHING.”
                    - Mary Oliver

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LAB NEWS
19/03/19: $10M earmarked for ovarian cancer research in the new federal budget!
08/01/19: New study published in collaboration with Dr. Mark Carey on MEK inhibitor resistance in low-grade serous cancer. See Fernandez et al 2019.
18/04/18: London Run for Ovarian Cancer awarded Community Partner of the Year at Lawson Impact Awards! view youtube clip 1:08-2:20 [more]
18/04/18: Congratulations to Dr. Adrian Buensuceso, Jamie Lee Fritz and Kerrie Sullivan for winning presentation prizes at the Paul Harding Research Day!
04/04/18: Invited talk given by Dr. Shepherd in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at UMinn
07/03/18: Collaborative publication by Lalonde et al in Peptide Science on stapled ghrelin peptides as new probes [https://doi.org/10.1002/pep2.24055]
13/02/18: Successful BioCanRx Enabling Studies Program awarded to Jim Koropatnick (Project Lead) and Trevor Shepherd (co-PI) in partnership with Formation Biologics [read more]
20/09/17: News article on Dr. Shepherd on the Ovarian Cancer Canada website [read more]
30/08/17: New publication in BMC Cancer by Jessica Tong et al [PMID: 28854921] 
16/08/17: Drs. Shepherd, DiMattia, McGee & Welch are awarded a CRS Operating Grant to study autophagy and chemo-resistance in ovarian cancer
21/06/17: Congrats to Parima Saxena for successfully defending her Master's thesis!
16/06/17: Congrats to Dr. Adrian Buensuceso & Parima Saxena as poster award winners at Oncology Research & Education Day
25/05/17: Ovarian TRI receives funding for innovative translational research from OICR [more]
14/05/17: Mother's Day 2017: London Run for Ovarian Cancer is now at $2M and counting!
10/04/17: Drs. Shepherd, McCormick & Ronald receive Collaborative Research Seed Grant to study novel immunotherapy approach in metastatic ovarian cancer
14/02/17: TOCRP receives game-changing $5.25M legacy gift from Dr. John Knight [more details]
12/01/17: Generous donors team up to support purchase of innovative IncuCyte ZOOM [more details]
05/12/16: Trainee Dr. Adrian Buensuceso presents in Rapid-Fire Postdoc Talks at TFRI Ontario Node Research Symposium
01/10/16: Collaborative research on MEK inhibition for low-grade serous ovarian cancer published in Amer J Cancer Res [Pubmed]
26/07/16: Collaborative research on role of mevalonate pathway in mechanisms of ovarian cancer metastasis published in Oncotarget [Pubmed]

OUR MISSION

Ovarian cancer is a devastating malignancy since in many cases women are first diagnosed after the disease has already spread, or metastasized. Even after aggressive surgery and combination cytotoxic chemotherapy, very often this relentless disease returns quickly with evolved chemotherapy-resistance. Therefore, the overarching theme of the Shepherd lab, within the Translational Ovarian Cancer Research Unit (TOCRU), is to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in ovarian cancer metastasis and test new therapeutic strategies to target and alleviate late-stage disease and chemo-resistance.

The TOCRU represents fundamental and translational research activities co-led by scientists Drs. Shepherd and Gabriel DiMattia, and in close collaboration with gynaecologic oncology surgeons and other members of the Gynaecologic Oncology Multidisciplinary Disease Site Team at the London Regional Cancer Program. Together, the TOCRU team has made significant discoveries through the novel development and use of ovarian cancer patient ascites-derived cell lines representing disease diversity and their application of an in vitro three-dimensional spheroid culture model of metastasis and tumour biology. The continued objective of the TOCRU is to ultimately apply new research discoveries to impact the lives of ovarian cancer patients with improved therapies to prolong disease-free survival and improve overall quality-of-life.