Zana and Labfront Announce Awards of the Joint Multimodal Digital Biomarkers Research Grant 2026

Nine researchers across leading international institutions receive joint access to the Labfront and VOICE-BIOME™ platforms to combine voice biomarkers with physiological wearable data in longitudinal health research.

Zana and Labfront today announced the recipients of the Labfront × Zana Multimodal Digital Biomarkers Research Grant 2026, a joint initiative of both companies to support researchers combining voice biomarkers with physiological wearable data in longitudinal health research.

The programme reflects a shared conviction that the most clinically meaningful insights in digital health come not from a single sensor or platform, but from combining modalities. Labfront’s research-grade physiological data collection infrastructure, spanning wearables, ECG, CGM, and ecological momentary assessment, and Zana’s VOICE-BIOME™ voice biomarker platform were made available jointly to each recipient, enabling a genuinely multimodal research capability that neither platform offers alone.

Selected from a competitive international applicant pool of 30 submissions, the awardees span nine leading research institutions and cover clinical areas including oncology, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, women’s health, and occupational health.

For Julia Hoxha, Co-founder and CEO of Zana, “this cohort of researchers represents exactly the diversity of clinical questions we hoped to attract when we launched this programme. From oncology wards to air traffic control towers, voice is proving to be a meaningful signal across contexts we are only beginning to fully understand. We are proud to support each of these teams.”

While Chris Peng, CEO of Labfront, states that “whether it is studying cancer patients’ breathing or new mothers’ stress response, it’s clear that the future of research is trending towards more and more comprehensive combinations of biomarkers. There were so many innovative projects proposed and it is our pleasure to support these scientists.”

Zana Choice Winner

This Award recognises the application judged strategically significant for advancing the clinical science of voice biomarkers.

• Chao Cao, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Longitudinal voice biomarkers for pulmonary toxicity in cancer treatment — A pioneering study tracking acoustic change as a non-invasive signal of treatment-induced respiratory toxicity in oncology patients, combining VOICE-BIOME™ voice analysis with Labfront physiological monitoring.

Innovation Awards

Innovation Award recipients are conducting end-to-end multimodal studies deploying both the Labfront and VOICE-BIOME™ platforms, with new study designs targeting novel health questions.

• Stephanie Zawada, Mayo Clinic: Multimodal phenotyping of early Lewy body dementia — A focused study applying combined voice and wearable biomarkers to one of the most diagnostically challenging neurodegenerative conditions.
• Rupal Patel, Northeastern University: Vocal signatures of sleep-driven cognition in shift workers — Investigating how sleep deprivation and circadian disruption alter voice and physiological markers of cognitive state in a high-demand occupational population, using wearable and voice data collected in parallel.
• Jessica Van Bree, University of North Dakota: Voice biomarkers for cognitive state monitoring in air traffic controllers — A controlled simulated-environment study examining whether voice can serve as a real-time indicator of cognitive load in safety-critical occupational settings, anchored by simultaneous physiological data collection.

Pioneer Awards

Pioneer Award recipients are working in first-of-its-kind clinical territory, where the combined application of VOICE-BIOME™ and Labfront data opens genuinely new research directions.

• Gabriella Ferris-Hamlett, Harvard University: Perinatal PTSD symptoms and emotion regulation — Applying voice and physiological biomarkers in parallel to detect and track PTSD relapse risk among pregnant and postpartum women, a population with significant unmet need for remote monitoring tools.
• Nico Lin, University of Cape Town: Acute pulmonary oedema in preeclampsia — inpatient ward pilot — A ward-based pilot study examining decompensation signals in maternal health, bringing joint multimodal biomarker collection directly into the inpatient clinical environment.

Integration Grants

Integration Grant recipients are embedding VOICE-BIOME™ into active, IRB-approved research programmes, extending existing studies with a voice biomarker layer that complements already-collected Labfront physiological data.

• David Snipelisky, Cleveland Clinic Florida: PREDICT-ASSESS-HF: diagnostic tools in heart failure — Adding VOICE-BIOME™ voice biomarker collection to an already-active heart failure programme to investigate acoustic correlates of disease progression and treatment response alongside physiological monitoring.
• Katherine Hackett, Mount Sinai: Reme-risk phenotyping: wearable, voice, and smartphone — Integrating voice data into a three-modality remote monitoring study built on an established Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre cohort, with Labfront providing the wearable physiological layer.
• Michelle Boakye, UMass Boston: Multimodal biomarkers of diabetes distress in Type 2 Diabetes — Extending an active diabetes research programme with VOICE-BIOME™ voice biomarker collection to investigate the relationship between psychological burden and acoustic health signals.

About the Labfront × Zana Multimodal Digital Biomarkers Research Grant 2026

The Labfront × Zana Multimodal Digital Biomarkers Research Grant 2026 is a joint research support initiative co-designed by Zana Technologies GmbH and Labfront. The programme provides selected researchers with access to both platforms, hardware support, and scientific onboarding to enable high-quality multimodal digital biomarker research. The 2026 cohort was selected from 30 international applications by a joint review committee.