Korean team develops AI model for 'customized' cancer vaccine

A joint research team of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and domestic biotechnology firm Neogenlogic has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that can help produce a whole new type of "personalized" cancer vaccine, the joint team said Friday. The new AI platform helps identify neoantigens unique to each cancer patient that can train the patient's immune system, and thus prevent recurrence of the illness. "Neoantigens -- mutation-derived protein fragments unique to a patient's tumor -- are the 'fingerprints' used by vaccines to train the immune system," the team, led by professor Choi Jung-kyoon of KAIST, said in a press release. "While current vaccines focus almost exclusively on activating cytotoxic T cells for immediate attack, emerging clinical evidence highlights that B cell-mediated immune memory is the key to durable, long-term antitumor responses and the prevention of recurrence," it added. Such findings were published in the Dec. 3 edition of Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. According to the research team, its AI mo