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If we think of the immune system as a machine, then we are far from even knowing all of its parts.

We live in a world fraught with risk from new pandemics. Fortunately, we also now live in an era with the tools to build a global immune system.

A lot of medicines are not there to cure diseases. That's fine - drugs that keep people alive who wouldn't otherwise be alive are useful. What I object to is the drug companies' advertising, which you see everywhere in the U.S., which claims that they are curing diseases when they're not.

The world has been very careful to pick very few diseases for eradication, because it is very tough.

I live in a fantasy world where I think I'm immune to all disease. I don't get sick and haven't had anything major go wrong.

I agree, the world would be a better place if doctors were less enthusiastic about adopting very new drugs.

I had seen AIDS patients in India and Africa, and knowing that people were dying even though drugs existed that could help them was shattering for me.

If you look at three diseases, the three major killers, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, the only disease for which we have really good drugs is HIV. And it's very simple: because there's a market in the United States and Europe.

We are trying to find drugs, small molecules, that people could take to make them disease-resistant, more youthful and healthy. Eventually we will find them.