Researchers at the University of Oxford are building a powerful home-grown AI system to help develop cutting-edge cancer treatments, without relying on American tech giants.

The aim is to create a new generation of personalised cancer vaccines, tailored to the genetics of individual patients. The project is backed by government funding.

It is intended to give Britain a “sovereign capability” in AI-driven drug discovery, where the UK trains and runs the systems itself. A key goal is to keep control of sensitive NHS data and valuable intellectual property.

At the heart of the project is an “AI scientist” known as Ciara. The system is designed to work alongside human experts. It will digest scientific literature, form hypotheses, design experiments, instruct robots to carry them out and learn from the results.

The computing power will come from UK-based supercomputers. “We can keep our data sovereign,” said Dr Lennard Lee, one of the project leaders.

Lee called it a “watershed moment for cancer research.” He said it would be “madness” for the UK to rely on foreign expertise and computing power.