Research-stage platform · Patent pending
Tartei has built a clinical-sample, FTIR and analytical foundation for investigating drug-induced response patterns. We expose patient-derived immune cells to a selected therapy and compare the resulting pattern with a matched control.
We are seeking pharmaceutical collaborators to design focused studies testing whether these patterns are associated with actual treatment outcomes and can help define potential responder groups.
Seeking pharmaceutical collaborators for tailored drug-response studies.
01
Patient-derived immune cells
02
Drug versus matched control
03
Outcome-linked AI study
01 — The challenge
Patients with the same diagnosis can respond very differently to the same therapy. When responders and non-responders are analyzed together, a meaningful effect may be difficult to detect.
Drug developers need better ways to form responder hypotheses—and test them before committing to broader clinical development.
The molecule may not be the only question. The selected population may matter just as much.
02 — The Tartei approach
Many biomarker programs begin with a marker selected in advance. Tartei starts with the biological perturbation itself.
Samples from the same patient are divided into drug and control conditions. FTIR measures the broad molecular change associated with exposure to the therapy. In the planned study, AI will examine how multiple spectral changes behave together and test whether the resulting patterns are associated with independently recorded clinical outcomes.
Layer
The selected therapy is applied directly to patient-derived immune cells outside the body. Comparing drug and control conditions from the same patient helps control for baseline differences between people.
Layer
FTIR measures a broad molecular response pattern in the cells and culture-derived material. This may capture coordinated changes that could be missed when an assay examines only one predefined marker.
Core of the platform
In the planned outcome-linked study, our AI will analyze the complete drug-versus-control spectral difference. It will test whether shared response patterns are associated with better clinical outcomes.
03 — Workflow
Patient sample → Drug versus control → FTIR response → AI analysis → Potential responder group
Immune cells are isolated from the patient's blood.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells, or PBMCs, are immune cells isolated from blood.
The sample is divided into matched conditions. One receives the selected therapy. The other serves as the control.
FTIR measures the broad molecular response pattern produced under each condition.
In the planned study, our AI will analyze the drug-versus-control spectral difference and test whether it is associated with patients' independently recorded treatment outcomes.
Actual clinical outcomes enter here as a separate, independent input.
The analysis will look for shared patterns among patients who benefited, producing a potential responder group for further testing.
The output is a responder hypothesis to test—not a clinical treatment recommendation.
What is measured
The difference between the drug-treated and control parts of the same patient sample. Each patient acts as their own reference, helping isolate the drug-associated response from baseline differences between donors.
Intended output
A responder hypothesis: which response patterns occur in patients who benefited, and whether they could be tested in a future study.
04 — Current status
01
The team established research FTIR workflows and analyzed samples from more than 100 patients across rheumatoid arthritis and comparator groups, obtained through collaborating clinicians under the required ethics-committee approvals and informed consent.
02
The research has included plasma, whole blood and extracellular vesicles, or EVs, providing experience across different patient-derived materials.
03
We developed algorithms to detect group-associated spectral differences and examine relationships with clinical and biological measures, including DAS28 and IL-6.
04
Exploratory ex vivo drug-response experiments have been conducted using samples from a handful of patients. Drug-associated spectral changes were measurable, but the work is not yet sufficiently large to determine whether the patterns can identify responder groups.
The next validation study
We are seeking a pharmaceutical collaborator for a sufficiently sized, blinded and outcome-linked drug-response study.
The study will test whether drug-induced spectral patterns, analyzed together with independently recorded treatment outcomes, can support the identification of potential responder groups.
The therapy, patient population, experimental conditions, clinical endpoint and analytical plan can be tailored to the collaborator's development question.
What we have
Clinical samples, FTIR workflows, analytical algorithms and early drug-response feasibility.
What comes next
The study that tests the responder-selection hypothesis.
05 — Potential value
If supported by blinded, outcome-linked studies, the approach could add patient-derived response evidence to pharmaceutical development decisions.
Test whether the response pattern can help identify a patient group more likely to benefit in a future trial.
Compare drug-induced patterns across disease subtypes and clinically different patient populations.
Add functional, patient-derived evidence when evaluating a therapy or development program.
Generate responder hypotheses that can be tested in larger, independent studies.
06 — Clinical setting
Our research is conducted in a hospital-based laboratory setting, in close contact with collaborating clinicians.
Subject to the required ethics-committee approvals and informed consent, this environment allows us to obtain well-characterized samples from real patients, including people with complex clinical profiles and multiple conditions.
Comparison samples are also obtained from people attending routine workplace health screenings.
The close connection between the laboratory and clinical teams supports efficient study design and protocol development.
Daily interaction with treating clinicians
Samples from clinically complex patients
Screened comparison groups
On-site research and ethics infrastructure
This environment allows us to design studies around real patients and practical pharmaceutical-development questions.
07 — Partner with us
We collaborate with pharmaceutical teams to design focused studies around a selected therapy, patient population and clinical-development question.
Each study can be tailored to the program's relevant sample types, drug-exposure conditions, controls, clinical endpoints and analytical requirements.
This is a practical first collaboration—not a request for a broad platform commitment.
One selected therapy
One defined disease or patient group
Patient-derived blood samples
Matched drug and control conditions
One relevant clinical outcome
Blinded analysis and written assessment
In a 30-minute meeting, we can discuss your therapy, patient population and development question—and explore how a focused Tartei study could be designed around your program.
Discuss a focused study08 — Contact
Do you have a therapy, patient population or development question that could fit this approach? Send us a short message.
We welcome both specific study proposals and early exploratory discussions.