Mar
One of the projects that I photographed with Microsoft last year was Station B.
Microsoft is creating a platform and bringing together partners to program biological systems, essentially understanding how to program cells like we program computers and eventually control how a cell behaves. Instead of programming in 1s and 0s researchers are using the building blocks of DNA to write “programs” that could, for instance, help a cell recognize and attack cancer. This can open doors to new treatments, drugs, cures and materials. The industry holds huge promise but still faces a number of challenges.
Microsoft is leveraging its expertise in programming and research to develop systems with state of the art programming languages, algorithms and machine learning methods to program cells; something few companies have the capabilities and research infrastructure to do.
Microsoft is partnering with researchers at Princeton University in the US and two UK companies – Oxford BioMedica, which focuses on gene and cell therapy, and Synthace, which develops scientific software – as it develops the new system, called Station B.
The project is featured in the Financial Times
Microsoft Station B, Synthace, Kings Cross, London
Microsoft Station B, Microsoft Research Center, Cambridge
Microsoft Station B, Oxford Biomedica, Oxford.
Microsoft Station B, Microsoft Research Center, Cambridge
Andrew Phillips, head of Microsoft’s Biological Computation Group that developed the Station B platform
Sarah-Jane Dunn, scientist for Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK.
Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, biologist Paul Grant runs experiments in the Station B lab.
Jason Slingsby, chief business officer at Oxford BioMedica
Sean Ward, Founder and CTO at Synthace, London
