Genomic profiling
Indicates potential targets from mutation patterns and infers which therapy might work.
DIRECTLY MEASURED
Identifying the right treatment.
exalt® develops functional cancer diagnostics that measure how a patient's living cancer cells respond to up to >100 anti-cancer drugs. Within three days, the platform identifies treatments that selectively kill cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
A spin-off of the Medical University of Vienna · The right drug, for the right patient, at the right time.
SINGLE CELL DRUG RESPONSES
- Cancer-selective hits
- ranked by Δ selectivity
The problem
Cancer treatment still relies too often on trial and error.
Genomics can indicate potential targets, but it does not directly measure whether a therapy kills an individual patient's cancer cells. For patients with advanced disease, every ineffective line of therapy costs time they may not have.
f Screen Technology
Directly measures whether a drug kills this patient's living cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
The exalt® platform
f Screen: three integrated components, from patient to treatment decision.
Sample integrity, functional testing and analysis are delivered as one connected system that fits into existing laboratory workflows and standard high-throughput flow cytometry.
Sample integrity
f Vita
Viability-preserving collection tubes and standardized logistics keep patient material alive on its way to the lab.
Functional testing
f Screen-kit
A miniaturized wet-lab assay that exposes living patient cells to up >100 anti-cancer drugs and reads the result at single-cell resolution.
Analysis & reporting
f Resolve
Analytics software that quantifies drug response, cancer-cell selectivity and quality control, and turns it into a clinician-ready f Report.
From sample to ranked treatment profile
Four steps, completed within 72 hours of sample arrival.
- 01
Patient sample
Blood, bone marrow or tissue collected in f Vita tubes.
- 02
Drug screening
Living cells exposed to up to 140 approved cancer drugs.
- 03
Single-cell analysis
High-throughput cytometry reads cancer and healthy cells.
- 04
Ranked profile
f Resolve delivers a ranked, selective treatment profile.
Clinical applications
Three ways functional testing changes a treatment decision.
Initial market focus is leukemia and lymphoma, with the same technology platform serving rescue therapy, earlier-line prioritization and drug-development partnerships.
One sample. One assay. A ranked, selective treatment profile.
- >100drugs
- Approved cancer drugs tested per sample
- ≤72hours
- From sample arrival to ranked treatment profile
- single cell resolution
- clinically validated workflow
Clinical evidence
Built on prospective clinical research.
exalt® originates from clinical trials run at the Medical University of Vienna and partner University clinics in Austria and Germany. We report what has been shown.
EXALT-1
CompletedA prospective, single-arm study of image-based ex vivo drug screening in advanced aggressive hematologic cancers. Published in Cancer Discovery, it reported clinical benefit for functional precision medicine and identified exceptional responders.
EXALT-1 on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗EXALT-2
Recruitment of 150 patients completed — outcome results pendingA prospective, randomized, multicenter trial comparing functional precision medicine, genomic profiling and physician's choice. Feasibility results have been published; outcome results are pending.
EXALT-2 on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗About & team
A spin-off of the Medical University of Vienna.
exalt® was founded by clinicians, scientists, legal experts who developed and ran the functional precision medicine trials behind the platform.
Alexander Pichler, MD
CEO & Co-founder
Management
Hermann Hauser BS | EIT MedTech | UPenn | Weill Cornell Medicine | MUV
Tea Pemovska, PhD
CSO & Co-founder
Technology
15+ years functional assays · EIT MedTech | Women TechEU | MUV | CeMM | FIMM | UU
Philipp Staber, Prof. MD PhD
Chair & Co-founder
Business development
EHA Chair for Precision Hematology | Oncology Director Univ. Saarland
Gabriela Staber, Dr. iur., LL.M.
Co-founder
Legal
20+ years life science & IP · CMS Reich-Rohrwig Partner | Bar Austria, New York, Massachusetts
Advisors
Albert Missbichler, PhD
Co-founder Fianostics GmbH
Publications & news
Peer-reviewed science, and what's happening around it.
The platform is documented in peer-reviewed journals and covered by the scientific press.
EXALT-2 feasibility analysis
Comparing functional and genomic-based precision medicine in blood cancer patients
HemaSphere · April 2025
Read the paperEXALT-1 clinical trial
Functional precision medicine provides clinical benefit in advanced aggressive hematologic cancers and identifies exceptional responders
Cancer Discovery · February 2022
Read the paperPilot study
Image-based ex-vivo drug screening for patients with aggressive haematological malignancies: interim results
The Lancet Haematology · December 2017
Read the paperT-cell prolymphocytic leukemia
First-in-human response of BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax in T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia
Blood · December 2017
Read the paperIndividualized systems medicine
Individualized Systems Medicine Strategy to Tailor Treatments for Patients with Chemorefractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Cancer Discovery · December 2013
Read the paperNews
- Falling Walls FoundationNovember 2026
One of Falling Walls Venture finalists, Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin
Read more - Vienna Business Agency2026
exalt receives support from the Vienna Business Agency
- Hello TomorrowApril 2026
Deep Tech Pioneer, Hello Tomorrow Challenge
- Women TechEUJune 2025
Tea Pemovska, PhD selected as a Women TechEU Call 3 winner
- NatureFebruary 2024
Feature: the future of precision cancer therapy might be to try everything
Read more - Nature BiotechnologyFebruary 2024
Can single-cell biology realize the promise of precision medicine? — Cormac Sheridan
Read more - aws Deep TechNovember 2023
exalt receives Austrian Promotional Bank Deep Tech Pre-Seed support
- Falling WallsNovember 2022
Invited to the start-up idea pitch at Falling Walls Sciencepreneurs Night, Berlin
Supported by and affiliated with
A growing network of partners.
Partner with us
Let's bring functional testing into clinical reality.
We work with laboratories, clinical centres and drug developers to deploy f Screen and to design functional response endpoints. Tell us about your setting and we will get back to you.
info@exalt-bio.com- Medical laboratories integrating functional testing
- Clinicians and treatment boards
- Pharmaceutical and biotech partners
- Investors
- Research consortia