How Microsoft plans to ‘solve’ cancer using computer science

TECH giant Microsoft has revealed detailsof its latest research, saying it is aiming to “solve cancer using computer science”.

Microsoft has revealed a series of healthcare initiatives designed to solve cancer.

MICROSOFT says cancer is like a computer virus and can be solved by cracking the code.

The tech giant has revealed details of its latest research, saying it is aiming to “solve cancer using computer science”.

One of the projects involves using machine learning and natural language processing to help the world’s leading oncologists sift through all the research data available and come up with a an individualised cancer treatment for their patients.

Another is pairing machine learning with computer vision to give radiologists a more detailed understanding of how their patients’ tumours are progressing.

Perhaps the most ambitious project is one dubbed “moonshot” that could one day allow scientists to program cells to fight diseases, including cancer.

Researchers at Microsoft’s lab in Cambridge, England, are trying to map the “code” of the disease, hoping that once they understand how the problem occurs, they’d be able to reprogram cancer cells into healthy cells.

Microsoft hopes to crack the code to cancer using computer science.

“We’re in a revolution with respect to cancer treatment,” said David Heckerman, a distinguished scientist and senior director of the genomics group at Microsoft.

“Even 10 years ago people thought that you treat the tissue: You have brain cancer, you get brain cancer treatment. You have lung cancer, you get lung cancer treatment. Now, we know it’s just as, if not more, important to treat the genomics of the cancer, e.g. which genes have gone bad in the genome.”

Microsoft didn’t say how much money it is investing into the program, but its spokesperson said around 150 people work in the research centre in Cambridge. They range from computer scientists to biologists and engineers

Andrew Phillips, who heads the biological computation research group at Microsoft’s Cambridge, UK, lab said it makes sense for the company to be in this industry.

“We can use methods that we’ve developed for programming computers to program biology, and then unlock even more applications and even better treatments,” he said.