The nonprofit parent organization of OpenAI — the Open AI Foundation — has given $40 million to Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to generate data that can be used to develop more precise, personalized cancer vaccines.
UNC Lineberger researchers, led by immunologist Benjamin Vincent, MD, and computational biologist Alex Rubinsteyn, PhD, will gather deidentified tumor tissue and immune cell data that will train AI models to identify cancer cell targets for vaccines, according to a Sept. 15 news release from the cancer center.
Researchers will also conduct clinical trials to compare multiple vaccine formulations for triple-negative breast cancer, the release said.
These efforts aim to create a public, multimodal dataset to “help reach a future where cancer patients can get rapid personalized cancer vaccines when they are diagnosed,” the OpenAI Foundation said in a Sept. 15 news release.
UNC Lineberger’s $40 million grant is part of a $125 million funding program, called Public Data for Health, established by the foundation.
The funding comes at a time of increased interest in cancer vaccines. In a recent phase 3 trial, an mRNA-based vaccine cut the risk of melanoma recurrence and distant metastasis when combined with immunotherapy. A pancreatic cancer vaccine studied in a phase 1 trial produced immune responses that remained detectable for up to two years post-vaccination.
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