Microsoft Wants To Use AI And Machine Learning To Discover A Cure For Cancer

Microsoft wants to improve medical care through machine learning and AI. As part of this initiative, Microsoft is developing cancer research and treatment and addressing cancer cells as if it were a technical problem in a computer system.

Microsoft is facing cancer

Earlier this year, Microsoft launched Healthcare NExT, a new initiative that brings together artificial intelligence, health research and the experience of industry partners to empower people to live healthier and heal diseases. threatening. In a blog post that details the initiative, Microsoft pointed out that other industries have problems as complex as medical care, although the company believes it can move forward by incorporating new and innovative technologies.

"It's a big challenge," said Peter Lee, vice president of Microsoft Research NExT. "But we believe that technology, especially the cloud, artificial intelligence, and collaboration and business optimization tools, will be fundamental to healthcare transformation."

As reported by Digital Journal, Microsoft is extending Healthcare NExT to cancer research with the goal of continuing to work to find an effective cure or cure for the disease. However, it is getting closer to cancer research as a technological society rather than a medical one: it considers living cells like computers, with diseases like cancer, similar to system failures. Extrapolated to this abstract point, it means that Microsoft also sees cancer cells as something that can be reprogrammed instead of being destroyed; deleted instead of deleted.

Using machine learning to improve treatment

Microsoft's cancer research is taking place in one of its biological informatics labs in Cambridge, UK. Last year, a group of researchers revealed that they were continuing to develop a computer system that could live inside human cells and restart the system if cancer cells were detected, thus cleaning the affected cells. Other projects included using machine learning to improve tumor exploration, better organize patient data, and discover better treatments.

"If you look at the combination of things that Microsoft is doing really well, then it makes sense for Microsoft to be in this industry," said Andrew Phillips, head of the bioinformatics research group at Microsoft's Cambridge Lab, in Microsoft Story Labs. . submit. "We can use the methods we have developed to program computers to program biology, then unlock even more applications and even better treatments."

Pharmaphorum has compared Microsoft's efforts with IBM's use of Watson to fight cancer. Watson, who also uses machine learning and AI, showed that he recommends the same treatments as doctors, and is being used in the initiative of former vice president Joe Biden to fight cancer. As we know, machine learning can be invaluable when it comes to classifying tons of data. Cancer research is no different, as we have seen, it is used to identify breast lesions that can turn into cancer.

Ambitious goals for healing

Discovering a cure for cancer is an ambitious goal to be taken on, and it remains to be seen how cancer research will improve with the participation of Microsoft. That said, Microsoft has expressed its desire to "empower each person and organization to achieve more." If you can maintain that momentum and concentration, who knows what the company will develop.

"We are incredibly excited about the opportunities to make a difference in healthcare," said Microsoft. "We have been listening carefully to our customers and partners within the healthcare sector, and we have heard their message: let's work together, innovate together and create solutions that empower people to lead healthier lives."