research. He further generated monoclonal antibodies specific for the hematopoietic stem cell marker, CD34. A joint collaboration with Dynal, the Norwegian Radium Hospital and Baxter resulted in development of an instrument to isolate hematopoietic stem cells in large scale using anti-CD34 mAb coupled to Dynabeads. Cancer vaccines; from idea to clinical trials Already during his period at the UiT, the idea of cancer vaccines came to Gaudernack's mind. The fact that cancer cell lines injected into mice were killed by the animal's immune system was fascinating in a time with the development of the cancer immunosurveillance theory and cancer immunoediting hypothesis. At the end of the 1980s the three-dimensional structure of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule was defined in parallel to identification of tumor-specific gene aberrations. In light of these discoveries, Gaudernack positioned himself early in the development of peptide vaccines based on genetic aberrations. One such genetic aberration was mutations in the proto-oncogene Ras subfamily. Together with his team, Gustav was among the first in the world to develop peptide-based cancer vaccines derived from mutated Ras proto-oncogenes. The peptides contain the various mutations that are present in the catalytic site of the Ras protein. Ras peptide vaccines In 1993, five patients with pancreatic cancer received ras peptide vaccines carrying mutations in codon 12. The five patients carried the corresponding Ras mutation and Ras-specific T cell responses were induced in two of the patients. The study demonstrated that specific T cell responses against mutations uniquely harbored in tumor cells can be induced in cancer patients by vaccination. Furthermore, late stage pancreatic cancer patients from two previous phase I/II clinical studies, which received K-ras derived peptides carrying oncogenic mutations, were followed more than 10 years. This study significantly demonstrated an improved median survival in the patients that received ras peptide vaccines compared to patients in the control group. Long-term immunological memory responses to the vaccines were present in three patients 9 years after the vaccination. Five patients were still alive for more than nine years after vaccination. This is an unexpected clinical outcome for patients with this malignancy. Telomerase peptide vaccines Since ras peptide vaccines had to contain the mutations that was carried in each individual cancer patient, development of a universal cancer vaccine that could be given to patients regardless of their cancer genotype was strongly needed. The enzyme telomerase is highly expressed in >90% of tumors while most normal