Researchers at the University of Oxford have gained access to one of the United Kingdom’s most powerful artificial intelligence supercomputers, as part of a government initiative to advance the development of cancer vaccines.
The team at the Nuffield Department of Medicine will use the “Dawn” supercomputer for 10,000 hours to rapidly analyze tens of thousands of patient data sets and identify hidden patterns that could aid in designing more precise and effective vaccines, reports BBC.
“It feels like science fiction, yet it’s reality – it’s 2025, this technology is here, and we are going to put it to the test,” said Dr. Lennard Lee, who is leading the project.
Explaining the significance of the technology, Dr. Lee emphasized: “The problem we face is that cancer is simply very complex. This means we can process massive datasets quickly to examine tens of thousands of cases and uncover hidden patterns. What this provides us is something truly unique, related to both speed and scale.”
The project also aims to contribute to the Oxford Neoantigen Atlas – an open-access online platform supporting cancer vaccine research across the UK.
“What we believe we will be able to achieve is to pave the way for designing vaccines that simply were not possible before,” Dr. Lee concluded.
