June 1, 2005
(ITWorldCanada)
Spam-filtering technology may soon save millions of lives, thanks to the technology's potential use in developing a vaccine to fight the deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Researchers are conducting in vitro tests of HIV vaccine models developed using Microsoft Corp.'s antispam software, according to Kevin Schofield, general manager at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash. The project is a joint initiative of Microsoft Research, the University of Washington in Seattle and Royal Perth Hospital in Australia, he said.
The great similarity between how spam works and how HIV cells mutate in the human body has allowed researchers to use Microsoft's machine-learning and data mining algorithms to analyze the genetic sequences of the virus. The purpose was to identify patterns within the genetic mutations of the virus and the patient's immune system, according to Schofield. These patterns are then used to create vaccine designs that have more HIV-fighting genetic markers.
In a similar way, antispam software detects patterns such as common words or phrases that enable it to identify legitimate e-mails and prevent spam from getting into the system, said Schofield.
Using Microsoft's data mining technology, researchers were able to search through millions of HIV strains and find genetic patterns more efficiently than by using earlier methods, according to documents from Microsoft Research. "There is a lot of technology that goes into how you choose those representative pieces. It turns out these technologies work for both spam and with developing HIV vaccine," Schofield said.
Aside from antispam technology, the researchers also relied on other software algorithms used for database management and compressing digital files.
"Microsoft Research's contributions enabled us to filter patient data 10 times faster than any previous research technique we've used," Royal Perth Hospital's Simon Mallal said in a statement. Mallal is the executive director of the hospital's Centre for Clinical Immunology and Biomedical Statistics.
"These Microsoft Research technologies weren't initially conceived as medical research tools, but they may prove critical to the ongoing battle to slow down or halt HIV and other deadly viruses," said Dr. James Mullins, professor at the University of Washington's department of microbiology.
The World Health Organization has reported that AIDS has claimed the lives of nearly 30 million people worldwide. Forty million people today have HIV, and close to 5 million are infected each year.
Since the project began about two years ago, other research institutions have signed up to participate, including Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Toronto, said Schofield.
According to researchers, it could take five to 10 years before they begin testing the vaccine on humans.