In Sydney, Australia, a tech entrepreneur Paul Conyngham used ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools to create a custom vaccine to cure dog cancer for his rescue dog Rosie.
The 8-year-old Staffy-Shar Pei mix was diagnosed with mast cell cancer and given only months to live. Conyngham developed a personalised cancer treatment system through tumour DNA analysis which demonstrated the potential of AI technology to create customised cancer therapies.
The traditional treatments failed to control Rosie's tumour growth, which resulted in her health deterioration. Conyngham founded a technology company and became an expert in machine learning before he decided to use AI technology for assistance.
He conducted research on protein structures associated with cancer by using ChatGPT and the AlphaFold AI program. This helped him and his team design a custom mRNA vaccine for dog cancer that targets specific mutations in Rosie’s tumour.
University of New South Wales Research Partner Dr Jane Smith explained that tumour DNA analysis served as the fundamental requirement for developing the vaccine. The research team processed tumour tissue to obtain data which they subsequently sequenced.
The vaccine was developed using this information to create a customised solution which would activate the dog’s immune defence against cancer cells.
Rosie received her vaccine in December. Her energy levels have improved since her tumour size decreased by 50% after the vaccine. Paul Conyngham told reporters he saw Rosie jump a fence while chasing a rabbit six weeks after treatment.
He said this was a huge improvement from her low-energy state before the vaccine. Conyngham needed to overcome regulatory obstacles which required three months of ethics approval before treatment could start.