That’s what we, a pathologist and an AI researcher, discovered when ourresearch groups joined forces at Karolinska Institutet. Despite our differentscientific perspectives, we shared a common goal: to take research beyond theacademic setting and into clinical reality—where it can truly help patients.
We began by tackling a major clinical gap in breast cancer care. For manypatients, traditional pathology and molecular diagnostics don’t provide cleartreatment guidance. Genomic tests exist, but they are expensive, slow, andlimited in availability. We believed that by combining medical expertise withAI and unique access to image data, we could build something faster, moreaccessible, and just as accurate.
Our teams developed a deep learning model that analyses routinehistopathology images to deliver prognostic insights. By training the model onthousands of cases, we built a system that could classify riskin under anhour—at a fraction of the cost of existing tests.
But research alone doesn’t change clinical practice. It was only when wemet Fredrik Wetterhall—an experienced entrepreneur who would becomeStratipath’s CEO—that the idea truly started to take shape as a scalable solution.With his leadership, we secured both early-stage investor backing and crucialsoft funding from innovation agencies like Vinnova. That’s when the path toclinical use became real.
We spun out Stratipath in 2019 with a clear mission: to democratise accessto precision diagnostics. Our first product, Stratipath Breast, is now CE-IVDapproved and used in clinical care. It supports physicians in making faster,more confident treatment decisions for breast cancer patients.
Being awarded the Athena Prize and Karolinska Institutet’s Prize forInnovation and Utilization has been affirming—but our focus remains onclinical impact. We’re proud to see our research helping real patients, andwe’re committed to expanding this approach to other cancer types.
For us, innovation means building bridges—between data and medicine,research and clinic, vision and reality.
Mattias Rantalainen – Facts
- Title: Associate Professor of Computational Medicine at Karolinska Institutet
- Background: PhD in computational biology and bioinformatics
- Expertise: AI, machine learning, image analysis, and cancer diagnostics
- Role at Stratipath: Co-founder; led AI model development and computational validation
- Affiliation: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Johan Hartman – Facts
- Title: Professor of Tumor Pathology at Karolinska Institutet; Senior Physician at Karolinska University Hospital
- Background: MD, PhD with specialization in breast pathology
- Expertise: Pathology, clinical diagnostics, translational cancer research
- Role at Stratipath: Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer; clinical validation and implementation lead
- Affiliation: Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
