Speech biomarkers
for clinical trials
A research-grade speech analysis framework for pharmaceutical and clinical research partners. Interpretable acoustic-linguistic features combined with deep learning — explainable digital measures built with regulatory-facing interpretability in mind.
Why voice for clinical research
A short speech sample carries acoustic, linguistic, and prosodic information that maps directly onto the cognitive and motor domains pharma trials are designed to measure.
Short structured tasks completed remotely
Minimal clinician time for speech acquisition. Suitable for elderly populations and decentralized trial designs.
Lower practice effect than cognitive composites
Acoustic and linguistic features do not benefit from stimulus re-exposure in the way scored cognitive tests do.
Trajectory information between clinic visits
Frequent acquisition is feasible, including weekly or higher-cadence designs when appropriate — enabling longitudinal trajectory analysis that infrequent clinic visits cannot capture.
Dual-pipeline architecture
Combining the interpretability of curated acoustic-linguistic features with the discriminative power of deep learning — without inheriting the failure modes of either approach alone.
Speech recording
Structured task on mobile device. Multilingual.
Curated acoustic + linguistic features
Prosody · Fluency · Lexical retrieval · Phonation
Speech foundation model embeddings + classifier
Complementary discriminative signal.
Cross-pipeline consistency check
Disagreement → confidence flag surfaced with output.
Biomarker output
+ feature-level explainability
+ confidence flag
+ supports clinically interpretable review
Pipeline A uses curated acoustic and linguistic features encoding high-level structure (lexical retrieval, prosodic rhythm, fluency timing) — robust to the acoustic preprocessing applied by mobile devices.
Pipeline B surfaces signal structures hand-engineered features cannot capture by construction — multi-feature interactions, temporal dependencies, latent prosodic patterns — adding complementary discriminative signal from end-to-end deep-learning representations. Outputs are reconciled; cross-pipeline disagreement surfaces as a confidence flag.
Therapeutic areas
Our two most-developed areas. Ongoing work in depression, frontotemporal dementia, and cognitive fatigue is available on request.
Alzheimer's Disease
Cognitive screening, MCI/AD discrimination, longitudinal monitoring. AD/PD™ 2026 ePoster: AUC 0.94.
Read programParkinson's Disease
Motor speech analysis, disease progression tracking, treatment-response exploration. Presented at AD/PD™ 2026 (AUC 0.97) and the Digital Biomarkers in Clinical Trials Summit (Roche, Basel, 2026).
Read programWhy architecture matters in deployment
In a longitudinal smartphone-based trial, mobile-device noise-cancellation algorithms change with OS updates. Many speech models are vulnerable to silent instability across these changes. Our architecture is designed to reduce this risk.
Drift in classifier sensitivity across six scenarios of mid-study noise-cancellation algorithm change.
Where we fit in your program
Speech biomarkers integrate at multiple points in clinical research — both in retrospective study analysis and in active trials.
Stratify candidates by progression likelihood
Speech biomarkers complement molecular enrichment with a functional progression signal.
Capture trajectory changes clinic visits miss
High-frequency, low-burden remote assessment captures trajectory changes that infrequent clinic-based composites can miss.
Apply to legacy data, or integrate prospectively
Apply our framework to legacy speech data from completed studies, or integrate prospectively into active protocols.
Collaboration model
We are an R&D partner for translational and exploratory work. We do not require new data collection to begin — if your team has speech data from previous studies, we can apply our framework to it.
Of legacy speech data from completed or ongoing trials.
In active protocols, with no impact on primary endpoint design.
On partner-curated cohorts, supporting fit-for-purpose evidence generation.
Let's talk about your program.
Share your therapeutic area and current studies. We'll respond with a tailored proposal.
Get in touch →