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Microsoft Premonition: What if we could predict epidemics like we predict the weather?
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Microsoft Premonition: What if we could predict epidemics like we predict the weather?

Through a network of robotic sensing platforms, Premonition aims to continuously monitor our environment to detect potential pathogens and disease-carrying animals before they cause outbreaks.

Microsoft | ALT Stories
Microsoft, 2021
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What if science could predict disease threats the way it can predict the weather? Mosquitos are responsible for 600 million disease cases a year because they transmit pathogens from the environment to humans. Microsoft’s Premonition project created robotic “smart traps” to lure, capture and analyze mosquito DNA. When networked, these traps can “map the biome” and look for genetic anomalies and potential pathogens, before they reach the human population. To date, Premonition has analyzed 80 trillion base pairs from these environmental samples. Working with industry partners and public health authorities, Microsoft intends to “change the paradigm” from a reactive to a proactive model for tracking threats. 

Summary

Humans rely on the world’s smallest species for survival.

The world’s smallest species make up 80% of life on Earth, and form the foundation for other species. There are millions, even billions of species of arthropods (mosquitos, bees, beetles), microbes and viruses; scientists haven’t yet identified them all. Some arthropods, such as bees, are mass pollinators and beneficial to humans, while others carry pathogens that can disrupt human life in catastrophic ways. The Ebola virus outbreak in Africa in 2014 inspired Microsoft to investigate how disease originates and spreads. They realized that a “global sensor network” could monitor organisms’ activities in different environments. Every living thing creates traces that can be tracked over time. New developments in robotics, autonomous systems and cloud computing make it possible to “map the biome” at a scale previously not imagined.

Douglas E. Norris, an entomologist and professor in molecular biology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University, identified Premonition as a “game-changer.” Currently, mosquito control has been “reactive” based on what is observed. With a better forecasting...

About the Author

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation that creates computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.

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