'We'll solve cancer in 10 years'

Microsoft has vowed to "solve the problem of cancer" within a decade by using ground-breaking computer science to crack the genetic code of diseased cells so that they can be reprogrammed and made healthy.

In a dramatic change of direction for the technology giant, the company has assembled a "small army" of the world's best biologists, programmers and engineers who are tackling cancer as if it were a bug in a computer system.

Microsoft opened its first "wet" laboratory this year at which it will test the findings of its scientists, who are creating huge maps of the internal workings of cell networks.

The researchers are even working on a computer made from DNA that could live inside cells and look for faults in bodily networks, such as those that cause cancer.

Chris Bishop, laboratory director at Microsoft Research, said: "We have tremendous expertise in computer science and what is going on in cancer is essentially a computational problem."