Dr. Sheppard obtained his MD degree from SUNY at Stony Brook, was a medical resident at the University of Washington and completed a pulmonary fellowship at UCSF. He joined the UCSF faculty in 1980, directed the Lung Biology Center at UCSF from 1986-2022 and served as the Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep from 2009-2022. He is currently a Professor of Medicine at UCSF. Dr. Sheppard is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His laboratory studies the in vivo biology of members of the integrin family and the basic biology underlying tissue fibrosis and asthma. Work from his laboratory has led to the development of 5 drugs targeting integrins that are in various stages of clinical development. He is a scientific founder of Pliant Therapeutics.