The use of a same-species proteins may be advantageous for several reasons: first, the use of murine-derived protein in a mouse model may reduce the risk of inducing autoimmune disease; second, the affinity of murine-derived Hsp70 to Hsp70 receptors on mouse DCs is likely to be higher than the corresponding affinity of MtHSP70; and third, the murine MHC system may more effectively process and present epitope peptides of murine tumor antigens than antigens from human tumors. The gene discussed is HLA-C; the disease is neoplasm.