Microsoft Partners Adaptive Biotechnologies to Enhance Diagnosis

Technology giant Microsoft has partnered with Adaptive Biotechnologies to map the genetics of the human immune system, to improve diagnoses of cancers and other diseases.

Adaptive Biotechnologies is a genomics and technology company working to map the genetics of the immune system.

As per the agreement, Microsoft will bring research and large-scale machine learning and cloud computing capabilities to translate genetics of the human immune system, or immunome into simple blood test that can be broadly accessible to people around the world.

"We are very excited and inspired by our collaboration with Adaptive Biotechnologies, as it clearly advances our mission to use cloud and AI technologies to transform healthcare and improve the lives of people around the world," Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President, AI and Research, Microsoft, said in a statement late on Thursday.

"This collaboration combines powerful sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into a revolutionary new capability, and represents the kind of deep collaborative partnership that we live for. 

"We are incredibly proud to bring our best people and AI capabilities together with Adaptive in this joint quest." Lee added.

"Artificial Intelligence represents one of technology's most important priorities and healthcare is perhaps AI's most urgent application. 

"Partnering with Adaptive Technologies to decode the human immune system," Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft said in a tweet.

The immune system is nature's most finely-tuned diagnostic as it routinely scans and reads any signal of disease - such as a cancer cell or an infectious agent - in the body, and holds the genetic code that can give insights into detecting these diseases.

"Some conditions like cancer or autoimmune disorders can be difficult to diagnose, but this universal map of the immune system will enable earlier and more accurate diagnosis of disease, potentially helping physicians to connect the dots to understand the relationship between disease states and eventually lead to a better understanding of overall human health," said Chad Robins, President, CEO and Co-Founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies.

The collaboration is a part of Microsoft's Healthcare NExT initiative, launched in 2017 to maximise the ability of AI and cloud computing to accelerate innovation in the healthcare industry, advance science through technology, and turn the lifesaving potential of next discoveries into reality.