Software king of the world, Microsoft thinks it might be able to cure cancer by treating it in the same way as a computer virus.
Vole thinks that it might come up with a way to monitor for cancer cells and reprogram them to be healthy again.
The company has built a ?biological computation? unit that says its ultimate aim is to make cells into living computers. As such, they could be programmed and reprogrammed to treat any diseases, such as cancer.
In the short term the computer unit is learning about drugs and diseases and suggesting new treatments to help cancer patients. It thinks it can use machine learning to read through the huge amounts of cancer research and come to understand the disease and the drugs that treat it.
At the moment there is so much cancer research out there it is impossible for any doctor to read it. Since computers can read and understand quicker the systems and apply it to specific situations.
Microsoft has been investing in bio-mathematical computing ideas. Normally the boffins from these two disciplines get on as well as the Arabs and Israelis but Microsoft thinks that the complex processes that happen in cells are similar to what happens in a PC.
This means that computers could understand why cells behave as they do and when they might be about to become cancerous. They?d also be able to trigger a response within a cell, reversing its decision and reprogramming it so that it is healthy again.
It is pretty close. Microsoft says that solution could be with us within the next five or ten years ? if no one blue screens.
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Originally Posted by Hans de Vries
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