A tech entrepreneur has created a personalised cancer vaccine for his dog, a breakthrough experts say could shape the future of human medicine.
Sydney man Paul Conyngham adopted his ‘best mate’ Rosie, an eight-year-old staffy-Shar Pei cross in 2019.
In 2024, the canine was diagnosed with mast cell cancer after large tumours started to appear on one of her back legs.
Mast cell cancer is the most common skin cancer found in dogs, and often appears as lumps, nodules or masses in the skin.
Mr Conyngham spent thousands on veterinary chemotherapy for Rosie, which slowed the spread of the tumours but failed to shrink them.
The tech expert decided to turn to ChatGPT to ask for possible cures for the cancer, later using the technology to sequence Rosie’s DNA and design a world-first custom mRNA vaccine for the sick pooch.
‘We took her tumour, sequenced the DNA, we converted it from tissue to data, and we used that to find the problem in her DNA and then develop a cure based off that,’ Mr Conyngham told the Today Show on Saturday.
‘ChatGPT assisted throughout that entire process.’
Sydney man and tech engineer Paul Conyngham adopted his ‘best mate’ Rosie, an eight-year-old staffy-Shar Pei cross in 2019 (the pair are pictured)
In 2024, the canine was diagnosed with mast cell cancer (pictured, before and after photos of how the tumours have shrunk since Rosie started receiving the vaccine)
Mr Conyngham then got in touch with Páll Thordarson, the director of the renowned UNSW RNA Institute, who used the data to create the world-first vaccine.
Dr Thordason told Today that although he had worked with similar mRNA for years, he was worried the technology would take too long to develop and help Rosie.
‘Once we had the sequence that Paul designed, it was less than two months until we handed it over to Paul, to the vet.’
Mr Conyngham said it took about a month to see results from the vaccine, which to date has shrunk the tumour by 75 per cent.
He said Rosie was losing her mobility in December, but by January he was shocked to see her jump over a fence to chase a rabbit.
‘I think it’s added considerable life and healthspan to Rosie,’ he said.
Dr Thordason said the world-first vaccine ‘absolutely’ could be used to treat human cancer patients in the future.
‘There are companies including Moderna that are working on personalised cancer vaccines, but I think what this taught me is two things; We can actually do this here, we don’t have to necessarily rely on foreign companies to help us do this.
‘That means we can democratise this technology in Australia. And we can also use it for other diseases, neurological diseases, for instance.’
Mr Conyngham (pictured) said the pair were currently sequencing a tumour that didn’t respond to the vaccine to find out why it was resistant
Mr Conyngham said the pair were currently sequencing a tumour that didn’t respond to the vaccine to find out why it was resistant.
He explained why he was prepared to spend so much time and money finding a cure.
‘Rosie is my best mate,’ he told the show.
‘She’s been with me through really tough times, through a breakup, through hard business deals and walks in the forest.
‘So when she was handed this sentence, I felt I had to do my part for her as well.’
