Austin, Texas, August 12, 2026
Function Health has announced a research partnership with NYU Grossman School of Medicine to advance the early detection of disease through the analysis of longitudinal health data, advanced laboratory testing, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence. The collaboration aims to identify subtle biological signals that may appear before diseases become clinically apparent, with an initial research focus on cancer, cognitive decline, and cardiometabolic conditions. By combining Function’s broad multimodal health-monitoring data with NYU Grossman’s clinical and research expertise, the partnership seeks to develop new approaches that could help physicians recognize disease earlier and support more informed clinical decision-making.
AI-Powered Research for Earlier Disease Detection
The partnership brings together two complementary sources of longitudinal health information. NYU Grossman School of Medicine, part of NYU Langone Health, contributes extensive clinical knowledge and longitudinal insight into how diseases develop, are diagnosed, and treated across diverse patient populations. Function contributes data generated through advanced laboratory testing, imaging, and ongoing health monitoring across a broad population in the United States. Researchers plan to use these complementary datasets to investigate how health changes over time and determine whether early patterns can be identified before significant disease progression occurs. The ultimate objective is to develop AI models capable of identifying early warning signals and supporting a more proactive approach to healthcare.
Research Focus on Cancer, Brain and Heart Health
The research agenda will initially explore three major areas of disease prevention and early intervention. For cancer detection, researchers will investigate whether subtle changes in laboratory measurements, imaging findings, and other health signals can help identify disease earlier, when treatment may be more effective. The collaboration will also examine brain health and cognitive decline, focusing on changes that occur over time and could provide insights into future cognitive risk. A third area is cardiometabolic health, where researchers will explore approaches for assessing future cardiovascular and metabolic risks earlier and potentially supporting more personalized healthcare strategies. The partnership emphasizes that the development and evaluation of these approaches will be guided by scientific rigor and clinical research standards.
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Building Medical Intelligence for Preventive Health
The collaboration expands the work of Function’s Medical Intelligence Lab™, introduced in 2025 to develop technology that combines clinical expertise, machine learning, and longitudinal health measurements. Through the partnership, researchers from NYU Grossman and Function will work toward developing and evaluating models designed to understand how individual health trajectories evolve. Function said the work could eventually help shift healthcare from a predominantly reactive model toward earlier identification, prevention, and intervention. The company has also expanded its capabilities through recent acquisitions and financing, providing additional resources for its health-monitoring and medical-intelligence strategy. As the research progresses, Function and NYU Grossman intend for resulting tools, models, and peer-reviewed research to be evaluated according to rigorous scientific standards.
The partnership highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence, longitudinal health data, biomarkers, medical imaging, and predictive analytics in clinical research. Rather than relying only on measurements obtained after symptoms appear, researchers are investigating whether continuous and multimodal health information can reveal meaningful changes earlier in the disease process. If successful, such approaches could contribute to earlier diagnosis and more timely clinical decision-making across multiple disease areas. The collaboration between Function and NYU Grossman School of Medicine therefore represents an important research effort focused on advancing AI-enabled preventive medicine and earlier disease detection.
Source: Function Health press release
