Exactics: Building a Universal Platform for Rapid Infectious Disease Testing

Innovation in diagnostics doesn't always come from established labs or industry veterans—sometimes it emerges from personal experience and undergraduate ingenuity.

These breakthrough moments reveal where healthcare is heading, what problems young entrepreneurs are tackling, and how accessible technology is reshaping disease detection.

In this series, we're spotlighting early-stage biotech companies making waves in their respective fields. Next up: Exactics.

Exactics' Mission: Accessible Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases

Not every biotech story begins in a university lab or venture accelerator. Some start with a science fair project.

For Exactics, a diagnostics startup founded by undergraduates at the University of Chicago, the goal is disarmingly simple: make accurate infectious disease testing fast, affordable, and accessible. The company is developing at-home diagnostic tools that could detect dozens—eventually hundreds—of pathogens using a single modular platform.

The stakes are high. More than 95 percent of the World Health Organization’s priority pathogens still lack adequate rapid tests. Millions die each year from infections that could have been treated early if only they’d been detected in time.

Exactics wants to change that with Proteus+, a universal platform for rapid disease detection. The company’s flagship test targets Lyme disease, but the broader vision is to make diagnostic testing as common and intuitive as using a home thermometer.

Why Rapid Diagnostics Need Reinvention

For all the progress in molecular biology, diagnostics still move too slowly. Most infectious disease testing depends on sending samples to centralized labs, waiting days for results, and relying on tests that only work after the body’s immune system mounts a detectable response.

Lyme disease illustrates the problem perfectly. Traditional tests look for antibodies that take up to three weeks to develop—by which point the infection can spread to the joints, nervous system, and heart. By the time patients receive confirmation, they’re often facing long-term complications that could have been prevented with early treatment.

At the biological level, timing is everything. Pathogens replicate quickly, often outpacing the body’s defenses and the healthcare system’s ability to respond. Every hour counts, but today’s diagnostic pipeline wasn’t built for speed or accessibility.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved that rapid testing can work at scale, but it also showed how limited our toolkit is. Outside of COVID, flu, and a few sexually transmitted infections, most people still can’t test themselves at home for anything else.

Exactics is trying to fill that gap by reimagining the testing process itself—creating adaptable, point-of-care devices that bring lab-level diagnostics into everyday life.

The Proteus+ Platform

At the heart of Exactics’ work is Proteus+, a modular diagnostic system built around a deceptively familiar technology: the lateral flow immunoassay. The same basic format powers at-home pregnancy and COVID tests, but Proteus+ reimagines it as a universal chassis for disease detection.

The core strip contains microfluidic channels lined with antibodies or antigens that bind to specific disease biomarkers. What makes it novel is its adaptability. By swapping out the biomarker layer—essentially changing the “capture chemistry”—the same cartridge can be tuned to detect hundreds of different pathogens. The device remains the same; only the biochemistry changes.

Exactics’ first product, QuickLyme, shows how that flexibility works in practice. Instead of testing a person’s blood for antibodies, QuickLyme analyzes the tick itself. Users place the tick in a small sample chamber, add a buffer solution, and wait 15 minutes for a clear visual result. If the tick carried Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, the test reveals it immediately—long before a human infection could be detected by traditional means.

That small shift changes everything. Rather than waiting weeks for symptoms or lab results, users can make treatment decisions within minutes of a tick bite. The same principle can be applied to other pathogens—malaria parasites, dengue virus, or Zika—by modifying the biomarkers on the test strip.

The company’s researchers are already developing Proteus+ variants for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Alpha-gal syndrome, and neglected tropical diseases where access to diagnostics is limited. The long-term goal is a single test architecture that could be adapted in days, not months, to new disease outbreaks.

Leadership & Founding Story

For Julian Kage, Exactics’ founder and CEO, the idea began years before college. In seventh grade, one of his closest friends contracted Lyme disease that went undiagnosed for months, leaving him with chronic fatigue and joint pain. The experience stuck with Kage. By eighth grade, he was working on a science fair project to create a faster Lyme test.

That early prototype won awards at the National Invention Convention and caught the attention of mentors who helped him file his first patents. When he arrived at the University of Chicago, he kept refining the design—eventually winning a National Science Foundation grant to advance the chemistry and device engineering.

In 2021, Kage incorporated Exactics with four classmates: Maxwell Almeida, Sean Greeby (now CSO), Dylan Murray (COO), and Zachary Sarmoen. Together, they built a company that now bridges academia, diagnostics, and public health.

Exactics has partnered with Dr. Monica Embers, a leading Lyme disease researcher at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, to validate its tests in controlled settings. The collaboration brings clinical rigor to what began as a high-school invention—a reminder that serious innovation often starts with curiosity, not capital.

Funding & Momentum

For a company that started as a student project, Exactics has moved fast. The team has raised more than $500,000 in funding—a combination of pitch competition prizes, early-stage investment, and university-backed grants. That’s no small feat for a biotech still run by undergraduates.

In 2025, Exactics became the first startup in University of Chicago history to win both the College New Venture Challenge ($115,000) and the Social New Venture Challenge ($135,000). It also secured funding from Tulane Ventures ($250,000) and additional support from Tulane’s Pitch Friday Competition. Altogether, the capital has given the company room to transition from proof-of-concept to manufacturable product.

That money is being spent pragmatically. The team is refining the Proteus+ cartridge design for large-scale production, establishing contract manufacturing partnerships for consistent membrane printing and reagent deposition, and working with advisors to ensure compliance with diagnostic quality standards like ISO 13485. They’re also investing in analytical validation—testing assay sensitivity, specificity, and stability under variable storage conditions.

It’s the kind of quiet, technical work that determines whether a clever prototype can become a reliable medical product. For Exactics, the challenge isn’t just proving the chemistry works. It’s proving it can work everywhere, from a clinic in Chicago to a rural health center in Tanzania.

Market Strategy & Regulatory Pathway

Exactics has no illusions about the complexity of entering human diagnostics. Its first step is a practical one: launching its QuickLyme test in the veterinary and pet health markets before pursuing human approval.

The logic is strategic. By starting in a less-regulated environment, the company can generate early revenue, collect performance data, and refine its manufacturing processes—all while building market visibility. Tick testing for pets and outdoor use provides a real-world proving ground for the technology without the delays of full FDA clearance.

Exactics has already secured a licensing deal with Tick Solutions Global to distribute the test through major pet health and outdoor retailers in 2026. The company is simultaneously preparing the data package required for FDA Class II clearance for human use, which involves demonstrating consistent analytical and clinical performance across multiple production batches.

Behind the scenes, the team is working with regulatory consultants to develop a pathway that aligns with Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) frameworks, should the platform be adapted for future outbreak response.

The approach is phased but ambitious: build credibility through pet diagnostics, then expand into human health, then into global health initiatives for neglected tropical diseases. Each step adds validation, data, and scale to the same adaptable platform.

Competitive Advantages

Diagnostics startups often live or die by two things: accuracy and adaptability. Exactics is betting on both.

The Proteus+ platform was designed to be modular from the start. That means the underlying assay architecture—the strip, housing, and reader—doesn’t change. Only the binding chemistry does. By swapping out antibodies or antigens, the same device can test for a completely different disease within weeks, not months or years. That’s a major departure from traditional diagnostic development, where every new test usually requires a new design, new validation studies, and new regulatory filings.

For Lyme disease, Exactics’ approach is especially novel. Instead of waiting for the body to produce antibodies, its QuickLyme test checks the tick itself. That small inversion changes the entire diagnostic window, turning a process that once took weeks into one that takes minutes. It also allows doctors and patients to act before infection takes hold—an almost unheard-of level of speed in infectious disease testing.

Exactics’ academic roots give it a rare advantage. The company has direct access to research facilities, validation equipment, and collaborators across the University of Chicago and Tulane University. These relationships give it the infrastructure to conduct iterative testing and early verification that many small biotechs can’t afford on their own.

Distribution is another differentiator. The partnership with Tick Solutions Global gives Exactics access to established retail and veterinary channels that reach millions of consumers annually. It’s a simple, scalable path to market for a product built to be used anywhere—on a kitchen counter, in a field tent, or at a clinic.

Looking Ahead

Exactics’ path forward is refreshingly clear. In 2026, it plans to roll out the TiCK Test for veterinary and outdoor use, collect post-market data, and finalize FDA submissions for human diagnostics. From there, the same platform will begin expanding to other pathogens—tick-borne illnesses first, then neglected tropical diseases, and eventually, sexually transmitted infections.

But the real story isn’t just the product pipeline. It’s what the company represents: a generation of founders who aren’t waiting for institutional authority to solve big problems. They’re building the tools themselves.

From a middle-school science fair idea to a university-backed biotech with funding, patents, and partnerships, Exactics shows how curiosity can evolve into infrastructure. It’s a reminder that innovation doesn’t always require a lab full of PhDs—sometimes it starts with a simple question: why can’t we test for this ourselves?

If the team pulls it off, at-home infectious disease testing could finally move beyond COVID and pregnancy kits, opening the door to a new era of decentralized, democratized diagnostics—one where knowing what’s wrong with you is as easy as checking your temperature.