Although medical science has made great progress in managing HIV infection through modern drugs, 1.7 million people die of AIDS each year, with a disproportionate number of deaths in developing countries. Even access to life saving drugs cannot cure the disease: patients require lifelong drug…
Today is a proud day for Microsoft Research Connections and our academic collaborators, as two of our research efforts have been named 2013 IDG's Computerworld Honors Program Laureates. The Computerworld Honors program, founded in 1988, recognizes organizations and individuals who have used information technology to…
As I was preparing to travel to Washington, D.C., for the 2012 exhibition of the AIDS Quilt and the International AIDS Conference, it occurred to me that this journey began a little less than a year ago, in nearly the same spot. I first learned…
The first documented case of HIV was in 1981. Today, HIV is viewed as a treatable, chronic disease by many in developed nations where treatments are readily available. Yet HIV continues to devastate, claiming the lives of 1.8 million people annually—about 5,000 deaths per day.…
Twenty years; two decades; a fifth of a century—we can phrase it several ways, but what does it mean? To a person, it’s the onset of adulthood (or maybe the point marking only 10 more years of living in Mom and Dad’s basement); to a…
HIV infection may not be the death sentence it once was, but it remains an undeniably serious condition that requires aggressive, life-long treatment and entails the ever-present threat of severe immunological impairment. Consequently, medical researchers continue to investigate the mechanisms by which HIV infection evades…
In the now decades-long battle against HIV and AIDS, researchers have been stymied by the virus’s ability to evade attacks by our immune system. Normally, a cell that is infected by a pathogen displays on its surface characteristic pieces of the pathogen peptides, known as…
(from left to right) Fayçal Djeffal, Konrad Scheffler, Moustafa Youssef received the 2010 TWAS-AAS-Microsoft Award in a ceremony held in Nairobi, Kenya. On February 26, 2011, three African scientists received the 2010 TWAS-AAS-Microsoft Award in a ceremony held in Nairobi, Kenya. The award, funded by…
Researchers believe that pathogens are evolving to evade detection from the human immune system. I recently co-published a paper that discussed research into the ongoing evolutionary struggle between the immune system and pathogens. In this study, we sought to identify possible commonalities in HLA (human…
On November 30, I appeared on Health Tech Today, where I chatted with Dr. Bill Crounse about the Microsoft Biology Foundation and how it will help scientists advance their research. This interview marks yet another opportunity for Microsoft External Research to spread the word about…
A deeper understanding of a disease's genetic underpinnings can lead to better biological insight into the disease and, thus, to improvements in screening, treatment, and drug development. This week, Jennifer Listgarten, David Heckerman, and Carl Kadie of Microsoft Research and Eric E. Schadt of Pacific…
Impactful research and discovery enhances the quality of life across our planet. That’s one of the reasons I am honored to chair Microsoft Research’s sixth annual Latin American Faculty Summit in Guarujá, Brazil. The summit is a great example of Microsoft Research’s commitment to working…
