No 'Waste Paper Basket Diagnosis' Anymore: Joe DeRisi solves medical mysteries |

Joseph DeRisi is a molecular biologist and biochemist, on the hunt for the genomic basis of illness. His lab at UCSF is focused on the cause of malaria, and he's also poked into SARS, avian flu and other new diseases as they crop up. His approach combines scientific rigor with a nerd's boundary-breaking enthusiasm for new techniques -- one of the qualities that helped him win a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2004. A self-confessed computer geek, DeRisi designed and programmed a groundbreaking tool for finding (and fighting) viruses -- the ViroChip, a DNA microarray that test for the presence of all known viruses in one step.

Joe DeRisi solves medical mysteries | Video on TED.com