H. Michael Shepard (born 1949) is an American cancer researcher who was awarded the 2007 Harvard Medical School Warren Alpert Foundation Prize and the 2019 Lasker Clinical research award, which he shared with Dennis Slamon and Axel Ullrich for their development of Herceptin[1] Shepherd holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University.
Shepard and colleagues at Genentech (Paul Carter, Gail Lewis) then invented Herceptin, the first monoclonal antibody that blocks a cancer-causing protein, and developed it into a life-saving therapy for women with breast cancer.
The innovation reduces the risk of recurrence and extends survival time for patients with metastatic as well as early-stage disease.
Every year, more than 50,000 women in the US are diagnosed with the type of breast cancer that the drug attacks, and over 2.3 million individuals have received the treatment since it became available.
He continues his work, now expanding successful treatment paradigms used in cancer to approach inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.