Importantly, by directly probing presentation of melanoma gp100 Class I peptide gp100 209-217 in the context of cell surface HLA-A2, we demonstrated that anti-CD40 11B6-CD40L targeting of this antigen resulted in significantly more sustained presentation of this antigen on MDDCs than delivery by anti-CD40 11B6 or anti-CD40 12E12 vehicles, another characteristic that can induce a stronger CD8+ T cell response. The gene discussed is CD8A; the disease is melanoma.