Fundraising by Otago-Southland branches of Freemasons has provided $190,000 to back the plans, through buying a laboratory automatic cell-counting machine and supporting researchers.
Sarah Young, a senior lecturer in the Otago pathology department, has focused her laboratory on developing vaccines and immune therapies for cancer. She also works closely with Chris Jackson, a medical oncologist at Dunedin Hospital.
Several new vaccine therapies were being developed against, primarily, colorectal cancer and melanoma, but could also be applied to other cancers.
As part of the initiative, an Otago PhD student, Braeden Donaldson, will travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to undertake research with a leading immunologist, Richard Vile.
Prof Vile, who visited Otago University last week, said the Otago research aimed to kill tumour cells more precisely, without damaging healthy cells.
Dr Young said one vaccine being developed involved a virus-like particle (VLP), which consisted of the outer shell of a virus without any genetic material contained within.
The virus could not replicate in the host, making it "very safe" for human use.
Researchers were using a VLP made from the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus, which was introduced to Otago in the late 1990s to control the rabbit population.
The project was being undertaken in collaboration with Margaret Baird and Vernon Ward, of the Otago microbiology and immunology department.
Researchers had found they could make a "good quality" VLP, using the viral shell as a "vaccine scaffold or platform" to attach unique proteins, derived from the tumour, and to target them to the host immune system.
"We have shown that this does indeed activate host immunity to induce a strong anti-tumour response," Dr Young said.
