UNO and Princeton Researchers Develop AI Tool to Advance Cancer Immunotherapy

Your body’s immune system can be a powerful weapon against cancer if it knows what to attack. A new AI-powered tool developed by a team of University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and Princeton researchers is helping scientists teach the body to fight smarter.

➡️ What’s new: UNO Associate Professor Dario Ghersi, M.D., Ph.D., Princeton graduate student Eric Glynn, Ph.D., and Princeton Computer Science Professor Mona Singh, Ph.D., created the tool, MHCGlobe, to improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies.

The study that led to the tool’s development was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Grant No. R01-CA208148) and published in leading scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

⏱️ Catch up quick: Immunotherapies, which use the body’s own immune system to fight cancer, depend on identifying cancer mutations that the immune system can recognize. But not all patients benefit equally.

• MHC proteins have more than 13,000 variants, but most immunotherapy research has focused on only a small subset.

• Existing prediction models perform worse for patients whose MHC variants are less studied, leading to disparities in treatment effectiveness.

🔬 How it works:

• MHCGlobe and its companion process MHCPerf, which estimates prediction accuracy across different MHC variants, use machine learning to analyze vast datasets of MHC protein interactions.

• It then predicts which cancer mutations are most likely to be recognized by a patient’s immune system, a key factor in successful immunotherapy.

💡 Why it matters: The tool sets the stage for more effective cancer treatments, ensuring that future personalized immunotherapies work well for people of all genetic backgrounds.

🎤 What they’re saying: UNO Associate Professor Dario Ghersi, M.D., Ph.D.: "Immunotherapies are one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer treatment, offering patients more targeted and effective options. But to truly fulfill their potential, these therapies must work for everyone. MHCGlobe helps bridge the gap by ensuring that even patients with less-studied genetic profiles can benefit from the latest advancements in personalized medicine."

🌎 The big picture: This research highlights UNO’s commitment to pragmatic, high-impact discovery that improves lives. By developing AI-driven tools like MHCGlobe, UNO researchers are advancing the future of personalized medicine, ensuring that breakthroughs in cancer treatment.

UNO’s Dr. Ghersi Among 30 Faculty Selected Nationwide for National Cancer Institute School on Algorithmic Cancer Biology

Sept. 3, 2025

UNO Associate Professor Dario Ghersi, M.D., Ph.D. was selected as one of 30 faculty members nationwide to participate in the National Cancer Institute Spring School on Algorithmic Cancer Biology (SSACB) held Aug. 18-22 at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

SSACB brought together researchers applying rigorous computational methods to solve various problems in cancer biology, with goals to collaborate, prevent academic silos, and train the next generation of researchers.

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