Oxford team boost AI-designed personalised cancer vaccines

A team at the University of Oxford has received support from the Medical Research Council (MRC) for the UK Cancer Vaccine AI & Supercomputing Project.

The programme aims to develop and manufacture personalised cancer vaccines using artificial intelligence and advanced UK supercomputing systems.

This initiative brings together clinicians, cancer scientists, AI experts, robotics engineers and manufacturing specialists.

It focuses on building AI-designed vaccines that target individual patients’ tumours.

The team is working with UK sovereign AI systems, including the DAWN and ISAMBARD-AI supercomputers, to analyse large-scale cancer and immune data not accessible through conventional university computing.

Dr Lennard Lee, project lead and associate professor at the University of Oxford, said: “Patients often ask whether artificial intelligence will genuinely make a difference for people with cancer.

“What this programme has demonstrated in a remarkably short period of time is that the United Kingdom possesses world-class sovereign AI systems.

“It is now possible to move much faster from AI prediction towards real-world personalised drug development.”

MRC funding will support the programme’s next phase, including equipment needed to manufacture experimental mRNA cancer vaccines and testing whether the AI’s predictions work in patient samples.

The goal is to confirm whether AI-selected vaccine targets can produce effective anti-cancer immune responses.

At the centre of the project is CIARA, an AI scientist platform designed to analyse tumour biology, manage laboratory experiments, and assist researchers in developing tailored cancer vaccines.

Dr Lee said: “One day, a clinician may simply be able to say, ‘CIARA, analyse this patient’s tumour. Predict the best immune targets. Design a personalised cancer vaccine.’

“We are now starting to build the systems that could make that future possible.”

The programme has grown into a consortium of more than 2,500 scientists, clinicians, technologists, patients and partners.

It has been referenced in the UK Government’s 10 Year Cancer Plan and highlighted in the UK Government’s AI for Science Strategy.

The Oxford team is collaborating with UK suppliers and advanced manufacturing groups to explore how future vaccine manufacturing could combine AI-driven laboratories, autonomous robotics, and sovereign AI infrastructure.

The next key milestone will be to demonstrate that AI-designed vaccine targets can induce measurable immune responses.

The project is supported by the MRC, UK Research and Innovation, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Cancer Research UK.

Contributors include Dr Gareth Bloomfield, Dr Anthony Hsieh, Michael Bryan, and Dr Jedrek Jaworski.

The programme aims to lay the scientific groundwork for integrating AI, supercomputing, autonomous manufacturing and immunology to accelerate the development of more precise and effective cancer medicines for cancer patients across the world.