Exactics

At 12, Julian Kage invented his first rapid Lyme disease test in a lab he built in his parents' basement. An Emmy-winning PBS documentary followed. By 18, he held two U.S. patents. That invention became Exactics. A decade later, our team is building diagnostic platforms that deliver lab-quality results in minutes, anywhere. TiCK Test—the first truly at-home test for Lyme disease—launches this August. Next is AVA: a reusable reader with disposable cartridges for STIs, respiratory illness, and beyond. The future of healthcare isn't in labs. It's at home, where people need it most.

Every day, millions of Americans are forced to wait for diagnostic results that should take minutes. At 12, our founder Julian watched his friend suffer for months with undiagnosed Lyme disease. So he convinced his parents to let him build a lab in their basement and invented the first truly at-home test for Lyme disease. By 15, his invention appeared in an Emmy-winning PBS documentary. By 18, he held two U.S. patents. Julian went on to work at two Harvard biotech startups while in high school, and when he got to the University of Chicago, he founded Exactics. In 2025, he dropped out after licensing TiCK Test to a commercial partner. At only 21, Julian has been solving diagnostic access for almost a decade. Lyme disease infects an estimated 476,000 Americans annually, with 95% of confirmed cases concentrated in rural and suburban communities where clinical testing is hardest to access. Early treatment is nearly 100% effective, but delayed diagnosis — experienced by 1 in 5 patients — results in severe and chronic symptoms. This gap is not scientific, it's structural. TiCK Test works wherever you are, the moment you find the tick. Validated by Dr. Monica Embers at Tulane's National Primate Research Center, it tests ticks directly for the presence of Lyme bacteria — the first test to allow detection at first exposure. For the one in ten Americans who find a tick on themselves each year, this is game changing. Launching this August through our distribution partners, TiCK Test will get more people than ever tested and treated early. Two years ago, Julian convinced his two fraternity brothers and former lab partner to abandon their internships in investment banking, software engineering, and medical research to cofound Exactics. Since then, we have raised $1.5M, developed and licensed our first product, and received the largest investments into an undergraduate startup in both Tulane and UChicago history. Exactics is now building AVA — a reusable reader with disease-specific cartridges that brings affordable diagnostics into the home. At-home STI testing is expensive — Everlywell's STI panel costs $119 and requires mailing samples to a lab, while Visby Medical's at-home PCR runs $149 per test. So we built AVA to be affordable: a $50 reusable reader lasting 1,000 test cycles, with $15 disposable cartridges delivering results in under 20 minutes at home. From there, the AVA app connects results directly to telehealth and treatment delivery — closing the loop from test to care, all without leaving home. Our STI cartridge prototype already detects gonorrhea and trichomoniasis at 1.1 genome copies in 12 minutes — twice as fast and 20x more sensitive than lab standard benchmarks. Initial cartridges target STIs and respiratory illness, with further cartridges planned for genetic testing and beyond. Each cartridge pursues 510(k) clearance; the reader pursues De Novo clearance, targeting fall 2028 market entry. Access gaps are widest in the communities most affected by preventable disease. Exactics is building the most convenient and affordable diagnostic infrastructure in the world to close