PR: Stardots and Uppsala University Expand Collaboration to Advance Objective Biomarkers in Psychiatry

Uppsala, Sweden, August 18 2026. Stardots AB today announced an expanded research collaboration with Uppsala University to evaluate objective neuro-ocular biomarkers across ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression and neurotypical controls.

Data collection will begin in autumn 2026 under the scientific leadership of Associate Professor Pär Nyström at the Department of Psychology, Uppsala University. The study builds directly on the research that originally led to Psilmi®, Stardots’ stimulus-driven neuro-ocular measurement platform.

The collaboration addresses a central challenge in neuroscience and psychiatric drug development: clinically defined patient groups are biologically heterogeneous, while research and clinical trials remain heavily dependent on subjective endpoints.

Psilmi combines controlled visual and cognitive stimuli with eye tracking and pupillometry to capture objective, time-resolved readouts of dynamic neurophysiological regulation. Rather than reducing a participant to a single score, Psilmi integrates these measurements into interpretable, multidimensional biomarker profiles, or biosignatures.

From Promising Signal to Prospective Replication

Preliminary research using the Psilmi battery has identified separable neuro-ocular signals across all five studied groups. In the existing dataset, models achieved areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve, AUC, ranging from 0.79 to 0.94 across controls, ADHD, autism, anxiety and depression.

The strongest preliminary signal was observed in ADHD, with an AUC of 0.94, while neurotypical controls reached an AUC of 0.91 and autism an AUC of 0.85. These findings are preliminary and should not be interpreted as claims of clinical diagnostic performance.

The new Uppsala University study is designed to test whether these signals can be reproduced in a prospectively collected dataset, and whether the underlying biomarkers are specific to individual conditions or reflect biological dimensions shared across diagnostic boundaries.

“Promising pilot results are only the beginning. If neuro-ocular biomarkers are to become valuable in neuroscience research and drug development, they must be reproducible, interpretable and robust across different patient groups,” said Daniel Petrini, CEO of Stardots. “This collaboration is an important step from detecting signal toward building a rigorous evidence base for objective measurement in psychiatry.”

The study covers all six domains of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria, or RDoC, framework. This transdiagnostic structure enables researchers to examine functional systems that cut across traditional diagnoses, including arousal regulation, inhibitory control, social attention and responses to positive and negative feedback.

“By directly replicating earlier findings, we are putting robustness and reproducibility first,” said Pär Nyström, Associate Professor at Uppsala University. “The transdiagnostic design also allows us to study specificity, overlap and potential false-positive findings in a way that single-diagnosis studies cannot.”

Building an Objective Evidence Layer for CNS Development

The Uppsala University collaboration forms part of a broader Psilmi research program spanning neurodevelopmental, affective and treatment-related applications.

Related collaborations include research with Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University into hormone-sensitive changes in ADHD and women’s mental health, as well as work connected to early autism research with Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. Additional research areas include OCD, treatment-resistant depression and objective measurement of biological change during pharmacological and device-based interventions.

Together, these programs are intended to evaluate whether a common neuro-ocular measurement architecture can support:

• Patient stratification in biologically heterogeneous populations
• Responder and non-responder characterization
• More objective and sensitive endpoints in CNS trials
• Earlier detection of biological treatment engagement
• Longitudinal measurement of treatment response
• Improved interpretation of heterogeneity within clinical trial cohorts

“For pharmaceutical development, the opportunity extends beyond diagnosis,” Petrini added. “Objective and repeatable biosignatures may help identify more biologically homogeneous patient groups, detect treatment-related effects earlier and provide insight into why patients with the same clinical diagnosis respond differently to an intervention.”

By measuring dynamic regulation under controlled conditions, Psilmi is intended to complement conventional clinical outcomes with interpretable physiological evidence. This may be particularly relevant in CNS development, where heterogeneous patient populations, subjective endpoints and delayed treatment effects can make it difficult to identify biological engagement and distinguish responders from non-responders.

Psilmi is currently intended for research use. Its biomarkers and potential contexts of use remain subject to prospective validation.

About Psilmi®

Psilmi is a stimulus-driven neuro-ocular measurement platform developed by Stardots. It combines controlled stimuli, eye tracking, pupillometry, behavioral responses and quality-controlled biomarker extraction to quantify functional regulation across multiple nervous-system domains.

Psilmi transforms synchronized neuro-ocular and behavioral measurements into interpretable, multidimensional biosignatures for research, patient stratification and longitudinal treatment studies. It does not provide a standalone diagnosis or replace clinical judgment.

About Stardots AB

Stardots AB develops software-based measurement and decision-support technologies for neurological and psychiatric disorders. The company combines controlled stimuli, sensor data, mathematical modeling and interpretable biomarkers to support more objective research, clinical development and future precision medicine.

Stardots is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, and works with academic, clinical and industry partners in Sweden and internationally.

For further information, please contact:

Daniel Petrini
CEO, Stardots AB
+46 70 782 70 01
daniel.petrini@stardots.se
www.stardots.se