A Man Used AI to Build His Dog a Custom Cancer Vaccine — And It Worked

When Sydney tech entrepreneur Paul Conyngham learned his dog Rosie had advanced cancer, he refused to accept that nothing more could be done. What followed was a remarkable journey that produced a world-first personalized cancer vaccine — and may have opened a door for human medicine.

Rosie, an eight-year-old staffy-Shar Pei mix Conyngham adopted in 2019, was diagnosed with mast cell cancer in 2024 after tumors began appearing on one of her hind legs. Mast cell cancer is the most frequently diagnosed skin cancer in dogs. Traditional veterinary chemotherapy slowed the disease but couldn't reverse it, leaving Conyngham searching for another path.
He turned to ChatGPT.

Using the AI chatbot to brainstorm treatment options, Conyngham landed on immunotherapy. That conversation pointed him toward the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics at the University of New South Wales, where researchers agreed — somewhat skeptically at first — to help sequence Rosie's tumor DNA. Conyngham then ran algorithms to compare the cancerous cells against healthy tissue, identifying the specific mutations driving the tumors.

Armed with that half-page genetic formula, he connected with Dr. Pall Thordarson, director of the UNSW RNA Institute, who used the data to synthesize a custom mRNA vaccine — the same foundational technology behind COVID-19 vaccines. The entire process took less than two months from sequencing to delivery.

Finding a veterinarian with ethics approval to administer an experimental drug proved the final hurdle. A researcher at the University of Queensland's School of Veterinary Science ultimately stepped in to give Rosie her injections.
The results have been dramatic. The primary tumors shrank by roughly 75 percent. Conyngham is now pursuing a second round of sequencing to target a remaining tumor that didn't respond to the first vaccine.
"There's actually a chance that for some cancers, we can change it from being a terminal sentence to a manageable disease," Conyngham said.

Researchers involved say the implications extend well beyond one dog. The UNSW RNA Institute's Thordarson called it proof that personalized cancer medicine can be developed quickly and affordably and that the same approach could one day be applied to human patients.