Currently seeking 
new graduate students!

the shepherd lab

“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, 
but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, 
because they lead little by little to the truth.”
                    - Jules Verne, 
                      Journey to the Center of the Earth

OVCAR8 cells stably-expressing tdTomato aggregate to form a large spheroid in a 96-well round-bottom Ultra-low Attachment cluster plate.

our research

Spheroid culture model of ovarian cancer metastasis: Spheroids are entities present in the malignant ascites fluid of ovarian cancer patients with late-stage disease; they afford the cells with increased viability, protection from chemotherapeutic insult, and increased capacity to re-attach and grow as secondary tumours in the peritoneal cavity. We routinely perform experiments in which ovarian cancer cells are cultured in suspension, where cells aggregate to form multicellular clusters called spheroids. The overall focus of our research efforts is to decipher the altered signalling pathways and pathophysiological processes that exist in ovarian cancer spheroids to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities for metastatic disease and to overcome chemo-resistance.