Microsoft and Adaptive Biotechnologies announce partnership using AI to decode immune system; diagnose, treat disease
Jan 4, 2018 | Peter Lee - Corporate Vice President, Microsoft AI + Research
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The human immune system is an astonishing diagnostic system, continuously adapting itself to detect any signal of disease in the body. Essentially, the state of the immune system tells a story about virtually everything affecting a person’s health. It may sound like science fiction, but what if we could “read” this story? Our scientific understanding of human health would be fundamentally advanced. And more importantly, this would provide a foundation for a new generation of precise medical diagnostic and treatment options.
Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President of AI + Research (Photo by Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures)
Amazingly, this isn’t just science fiction, but can be science fact. And so we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Seattle-basedAdaptive Biotechnologies, coupling the latest advances in AI and machine learning with recent breakthroughs in biotechnology to build a practical technology for mapping and decoding the human immune system. Together, we have a goal that is simple to state but also incredibly ambitious: create a universal blood test that reads a person’s immune system to detect a wide variety of diseases including infections, cancers and autoimmune disorders in their earliest stage, when they can be most effectively diagnosed and treated.
We believe deeply in the potential for this partnership with Adaptive and have made a substantial financial investment in the company. We have also begun a major research and development collaboration that involves Adaptive’s scientists working closely with our top researchers to use Adaptive’s innovative sequencing technology and Microsoft’s large-scale machine learning and cloud computing capabilities to make deep reading of the immune system a reality.
Adaptive CEO and co-founder Chad Robins said in a press release today this announcement comes at a time of inflection in healthcare and biotechnology, as we now have the technology to be able to map the immune system. The potential to help clinicians and researchers connect the dots and understand the relationship between disease states could eventually lead to a better understanding of overall human health.
Imagine a world with an “X-ray of the immune system.” This would open new doors to predictive medicine, as a person’s immunological history is believed to shape their response to new pathogens and treatments in ways that are currently impossible to explore. The impact on human health of such a universal blood test that reads a person’s exposure and response to disease would be, in a word, transformational.
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We’ll share more details at the upcoming JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, including a fireside chat at 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, Jan. 10 with Chad Robins and myself called “Decoding the Human Immune System: A Closer Look at a Landmark Partnership.”
Tags: AI, biotechnology, Health, Machine Learning
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2018/01/04/microsoft-adaptive-biotechnologies-announce-partnership-using-ai-decode-immune-system-diagnose-treat-disease/