Saccade

Saccade Health is building a VR-based screening platform for early Alzheimer's detection, pairing a patent-pending NIR-camera attachment for headsets like the Apple Vision Pro with a 15-minute neurologist-designed assessment. The system tracks saccadic eye movements and runs them through a machine learning model to generate an Alzheimer's risk analysis against clinical baselines.

Research suggests saccadic abnormalities can surface up to 15 years before cognitive symptoms, yet standard tools like MRI typically only catch disease once symptoms appear. With VR hardware now commercially mainstream, a clip-on sensor turns consumer headsets into a cheaper, earlier neuro-assessment.

Founded in 2026 and part of Y Combinator's Fall 2026 batch, the San Francisco company set out to identify the earliest biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease non-invasively. The idea hinges on a well-documented but under-exploited signal: the eye's involuntary jumps between focus points.

CEO Shreyas Bhardwaj brings prior experience building medical devices and soft robotics research — relevant for the custom electronics and NIR hardware at the core of the product. The company is also pursuing pilots and IRB approvals with UC Santa Barbara and Cottage Health to benchmark against MRI.