June 03, 2026
Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Canada. Approximately 37 people are diagnosed every day, and with a recurrence rate of 60–70%, it is one of the most relentless and expensive cancers to manage.
For many patients, treatment does not end after the initial diagnosis. Ongoing monitoring and repeated interventions become part of life, placing a sustained burden on both patients and the healthcare system.
A research team in British Columbia is using artificial intelligence and next-generation technology to explore whether that pattern can be changed.
Training the immune system to fight back
Dr. Peter Black at the University of British Columbia and Dr. Wilfred Jefferies at Eyam Health, a Vancouver based biotechnology company, are collaborating on a genomics informed approach to designing a bladder cancer vaccine. Their goal is to use genomic analysis to identify molecular patterns common across bladder cancer cells, which the immune system can be trained to recognise and attack.
Then, using Eyam Health’s proprietary Jennerator AI (to predict immune system behaviour) and Gemini (which uses self-amplifying mRNA technology) platforms, those molecular patterns would then be incorporated into prototype vaccines for further testing. The aim is to identify a suitable candidate grounded in the specific biology of the disease and advance it through the drug development process.
Why recurrence is the core challenge
Bladder cancer’s high recurrence rate is what makes it so costly and difficult to manage. Unlike some cancers, where successful initial treatment can mean long-term remission, bladder cancer frequently returns. Patients require ongoing surveillance, and many undergo multiple rounds of treatment over years or decades.
A vaccine that trains the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells could offer a different kind of defence, one that works continuously to eliminate cancer cells before they can take hold. If effective, it contains the potential to reduce recurrence rates, improve long-term outcomes for patients and ease pressure on Canada’s healthcare system.
Early-stage research with a clear purpose
This project is in its early stages. No prototype vaccines have been tested yet, and there is meaningful scientific work ahead before any candidate could advance toward clinical development. What this research offers now is a rigorous, genomics informed foundation for that future work.
The project is funded by Genome BC through its GeneSolve program, which supports industry-academic collaborations pursuing practical applications of genomics in British Columbia.
For more information about the project, visit the project page on the Genome BC website. Read the publication “A binary self-amplifying expression platform enabling lipid nanoparticle-free vaccines and nanomedicines” in Nature Communications by Jefferies et al.
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About the Research Team
Dr. Peter Black is a professor at the University of British Columbia and a clinician-scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. He brings deep expertise in bladder cancer biology and clinical oncology, with a research focus on understanding the molecular drivers of bladder cancer progression and recurrence.
Dr. Wilfred Jefferies is a professor at UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories and the Vancouver Prostate Centre, and Chief Scientific Officer of Eyam Health Inc., a Vancouver-based biotechnology company and UBC spinout developing next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. Dr. Jefferies is the inventor of both the Jennerator and Gemini platforms and has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in immunology and vaccine development.
Eyam Health is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Surrey, British Columbia. The company is named after a village in England that, facing the plague in 1665, made the collective decision to self-isolate, sacrificing for the good of the whole. That spirit of clarity and courage defines Eyam’s mission to develop accessible, effective vaccines and therapeutics for global health challenges.
Eyam has raised over $9 million in funding, including grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Medicines for Malaria Venture. The company’s Gemini platform was validated in a peer-reviewed publication in Nature Communications in December 2025, demonstrating a 91% reduction in viral load using naked, unencapsulated nucleic acid delivery, a significant advance over conventional mRNA-LNP approaches.
About The Technology: Jennerator and Gemini Platforms
What distinguishes this bladder cancer vaccine project is the combination of two proprietary technology platforms developed at Eyam Health, each addressing a different and essential challenge in cancer vaccine development.
The Jennerator Platform: AI-Driven Target Discovery
Jennerator is an artificial intelligence platform for immunoinformatics, the computational analysis of how the immune system recognises and responds to disease. In cancer vaccine development, the central challenge is determining which tumour-specific proteins, known as neoantigens, will most effectively train the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells. Jennerator applies machine learning to navigate that complexity with precision, scanning thousands of molecular candidates to surface the handful most likely to provoke a powerful, durable immune response. What would take months or years in a conventional laboratory setting, Jennerator accomplishes computationally, rapidly and with a rigour that meaningfully accelerates the path to a viable vaccine candidate.
The Gemini Platform: Self-Amplifying Nucleic Acid Delivery
Once the optimal targets are identified, they must be delivered to the immune system in a way that generates a lasting response. This is where the Gemini platform comes in.
Gemini is a binary self-amplifying expression system deployable as either Gemini-R (saRNA), providing approximately 42 days of sustained antigen expression, or Gemini-D (saDNA), extending that expression to over six months. Unlike conventional mRNA vaccines that depend on lipid nanoparticles and cold-chain storage at minus 20 to minus 80 degrees Celsius, Gemini can be delivered as naked nucleic acid, is thermostable across multiple freeze-thaw cycles, and can be lyophilised for room-temperature storage.
For a cancer vaccine designed to prevent recurrence, this capacity for sustained immune activation is not merely a technical advantage. It is a clinical one. The ability to maintain antigen expression for weeks to months could provide the continuous immune surveillance needed to detect and eliminate recurring cancer cells before they can seed new tumours or spread beyond the bladder.
