Microsoft and Adaptive Biotechnologies Activate AI Engine for Breakthrough Diagnostic Blood Test

Celiac.com 02/13/2019 - Microsoft and Adaptive Biotechnologies have announced a major milestone in their efforts to develop a blood test capable of diagnosing numerous diseases with a single blood sample. 

The companies are attempting to use data to map the immune system’s response to perceived threats. By cataloging the body’s immune responses to certain threats, and how those responses are reflected in the blood, they hope to create a single test to diagnose numerous diseases, including type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and Lyme disease.

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To do this, they need huge amounts of data, and massive computing power for data sorting. The team’s artificial intelligence programs are central to their data crunching efforts. The team announced recently that the AI systems central to their task are now operational. Using that AI power, Adaptive and Microsoft are hoping to sequence immune data from 25,000 people with the five diseases by recruiting voluntary collaborators worldwide. 

Through the collaboration, they hope to collect information on how the T cells and white blood cells, central to the human immune response, bind to antigens. Once they’ve done that, the team hopes to develop methods for accurately diagnosing people with a given disease, or who have higher genetic risk for that disease.

 “Our AI systems are now ready. So please join us in decoding what ‘story’ the immune system is telling us,” wrote Peter Lee, Microsoft Corporate VP of AI and Research, on Twitter.

Adaptive is working with the University of Florida, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the University of Colorado and Virginia Mason, to profile thousands of people with type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and Lyme disease, or with higher genetic risk factors for those diseases.

Learn more about joining this scientific breakthrough at Adaptivebiotech.com