In 2024, Paul Conyngham, a technology entrepreneur based in Sydney, discovered that his dog Rosie was suffering from cancer. Despite attempts to treat the condition with chemotherapy and surgery, the tumors remained, and Rosie’s health deteriorated.
Consequently, he utilized artificial intelligence and, with the assistance of Australian scientists, ultimately developed a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine. The majority of Rosie’s tumors have decreased in size, and she has returned to chasing rabbits.
According to a report in the *Australian*, OpenAI’s ChatGPT recommended immunotherapy and guided Conyngham to the University of New South Wales Ramaciotti Center for Genomics.
Although Conyngham does not have a medical background, he is an electrical and computing engineer who co-founded Core Intelligence Technologies and previously served as a director for the Data Science and AI Association of Australia.
After contacting the university, he persuaded researchers to assist him and paid UNSW to sequence Rosie’s genome. He then began analyzing the DNA data.
“I consulted ChatGPT and devised a strategy for how to proceed,” Conyngham told the Australian.
He also employed AlphaFold, an AI tool from Google’s DeepMind, to identify mutated proteins that could serve as potential targets for treatment. While an immunotherapy suitable for Rosie was identified, the pharmaceutical company refused to provide it.
Subsequently, Pall Thordarson, a nanomedicine pioneer and director of UNSW’s RNA Institute, intervened and used Conyngham’s data to create a bespoke mRNA vaccine in under two months.
“This is the first instance of a personalized cancer vaccine being designed for a dog,” he stated to the Australian. “We are still at the frontier of cancer immunotherapeutics, and ultimately, we intend to apply this to help humans. Rosie’s case demonstrates that personalized medicine can be highly effective and administered in a time-sensitive manner using mRNA technology.”
Rosie received her initial injection of the cancer treatment in December, followed by a booster in February. Most of her tumors have shrunk significantly. Although they have not vanished entirely, Rosie’s condition has improved.
In a thread on X on Saturday, Thordarson noted that Rosie’s story illustrates how technology can “democratize” the design process for cancer vaccines.
He cautioned that Rosie may not be cured, as some tumors did not respond to the vaccine, though it extended her life. Nevertheless, Conyngham considers this a success.
“In December, she had low energy because the tumors were placing a significant burden on her,” he told the Australian. “Six weeks after treatment, I was at the dog park when she spotted a rabbit and jumped the fence to chase it. I am under no illusion that this is a cure, but I do believe this treatment has granted Rosie significantly more time and a better quality of life.”
Rosie’s journey has astonished some in the tech sector and highlighted AI’s potential to facilitate medical breakthroughs, potentially transforming diagnoses that were once considered fatal into manageable conditions.
Matt Shumer, co-founder and CEO of OthersideAI, posted on X over the weekend to draw attention to the story of Conyngham and his dog.
“This is what I mean when I say the world is going to get very strange, very soon,” he wrote. “Expect more stories like this, each sounding increasingly more extraordinary.”