Natera to Scale AI Foundation Models in Precision Medicine with NVIDIA

Key Terms

cell-free dna medical

Fragments of DNA that float freely in the bloodstream after being released by dying or damaged cells, like puzzle pieces carried downstream that hint at what’s happening upstream. Investors care because measuring these fragments enables non‑invasive tests — for example to detect cancer, monitor treatment response, check pregnancy health, or spot organ rejection — so advances, approvals, or reimbursement changes can quickly affect companies that develop the tests and related technologies.

precision medicine medical

Precision medicine uses a person’s unique genetic makeup, lifestyle and environment to choose treatments and preventive steps that are more likely to work for them than one-size-fits-all approaches. For investors, it matters because it can make therapies more effective and efficient—think tailoring a suit rather than buying off the rack—affecting drug development costs, market size, pricing power and the speed at which therapies win regulatory approval.

neoantigen medical

A neoantigen is a new, abnormal protein piece that appears on a cancer cell because of a mutation and is not found on healthy cells; think of it as a unique fingerprint the immune system can recognize. It matters to investors because medicines that target neoantigens—such as personalized vaccines or immune therapies—can be highly specific, potentially more effective and safer, and therefore can shape clinical success, regulatory value and commercial potential for oncology drugs.

tumor mutational burden medical

Tumor mutational burden is a measure of how many genetic changes a cancer cell carries, often expressed as the number of mutations per length of DNA. Think of it like counting typos in a book: more typos can make the abnormal cells stand out to the immune system, and cancers with higher counts sometimes respond better to certain immunotherapies. For investors, TMB can affect how well drugs perform in trials, the need for companion diagnostic tests, and the commercial potential of cancer therapies.

bioinformatics technical

The use of computer tools and data analysis to organize and interpret large biological datasets, such as DNA, protein or patient information. It matters to investors because it speeds up research, lowers development costs and helps identify promising drug targets, diagnostics or personalized treatments—think of it as using GPS and analytics to find the fastest, most reliable route through vast amounts of lab data.

biomarkers medical

Biomarkers are measurable indicators found in the body, such as substances in blood or tissues, that reveal information about health or disease. For investors, they can signal how well a medical treatment is working or whether a disease is developing, helping to assess the potential success or risks of healthcare companies or innovations. Think of biomarkers as biological signals that provide clues about a person’s health status.

hazard ratios medical

A hazard ratio is a single number that compares how quickly a particular event (like disease progression, relapse, or death) happens in one group versus another over time; values above 1 mean the event happens faster or more often in the first group, values below 1 mean it happens slower or less often. Investors pay attention because it summarizes a treatment’s effect on outcomes important for regulatory approval and market value — like comparing the speed of two runners to judge which contender changes the race outcome and future prospects.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), a global leader in cell-free DNA testing and precision medicine, today announced a new collaboration with NVIDIA to accelerate the development of Natera’s multimodal AI foundation model platform and expand applications across precision medicine.

Under the collaboration, Natera will integrate its unique longitudinal and multi-time point in vivo datasets and proprietary machine learning models with NVIDIA’s high-performance computing platforms, accelerated libraries, and AI frameworks. Together, the companies aim to establish the computational infrastructure required to train and deploy large scale AI models on complex medical datasets, enabling more precise diagnostics, deeper biological insight, and new tools to support personalized therapeutic decisions.

Natera’s AI solutions, anchored by one of the largest multimodal, longitudinal oncology datasets in the world, are designed to address some of the most complex challenges in oncology. Recent data highlight strong performance in AI-driven immunotherapy response prediction and neoantigen prediction. NeoSelect^™ – Natera’s algorithm to prioritize neoantigens – outperformed 25 established neoantigen prediction algorithms. In addition, NeoPredict^™ – Natera’s algorithm to predict response to immunotherapy – has demonstrated more than a two-fold improvement in immunotherapy response hazard ratios compared with tumor mutational burden, the current clinical standard.

These AI models have significant utility for discovery of new drug targets, prediction of therapy response, and identification of new prognostic biomarkers. Since announcing this platform, Natera has seen substantial engagement from pharmaceutical partners, reflected in new data collaborations and growth in the data business, reinforcing the momentum behind this approach.

“Our vision is to build a computational foundation for biological intelligence,” said Matthew Rabinowitz, co-founder and executive chairman of Natera. “By combining Natera’s extensive AI-ready longitudinal data and machine learning with NVIDIA’s compute and software stacks, we can train at unprecedented scale. This collaboration enables AI systems that interpret biology and begin to reason across different data types, marking a meaningful step forward in personalized diagnostics and therapeutic insights.”

Natera will utilize several NVIDIA platforms under the collaboration, including: NVIDIA Parabricks for accelerating bioinformatics workflows; NVIDIA BioNeMo for optimizing large-scale model training; and NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit for building multi-agent AI systems designed for clinical and research use. Early engineering milestones show an average reduction of 75.7% in running time and 59.2% in cost using Parabricks for genomic analysis, and 45.5% gains in training speed by integrating NVIDIA Transformer Engine.

“AI is advancing every aspect of precision medicine, enhancing the speed and accuracy of biological discovery for better outcomes,” said Rory Kelleher, senior director, global head of business development, life sciences at NVIDIA. “Paired with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and advanced AI frameworks, Natera’s unique data and platform is helping to unlock better diagnostics, deeper biological insights, and personalized treatments.”

Natera’s global testing and research networks generate exceptionally large volumes of data points each year, providing the scale needed to train increasingly sophisticated multimodal AI models. Together with NVIDIA computing platforms, the companies aim to advance AI systems that deliver more accurate, data-driven insights across precision oncology, organ health and beyond.

About Natera

Natera^™ is a global leader in cell-free DNA and precision medicine, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. We aim to make personalized genetic testing and diagnostics part of the standard-of-care to protect health and inform earlier, more targeted interventions that help lead to longer, healthier lives. Natera’s tests are supported by more than 350 peer-reviewed publications that demonstrate excellent performance. Natera operates ISO 13485-certified and CAP-accredited laboratories certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) in Austin, Texas, and San Carlos, California, and through Foresight Diagnostics, its subsidiary, operates an ISO 27001-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory certified under CLIA in Boulder, Colorado. For more information, visit www.natera.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements and are not a representation that Natera’s plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Natera’s expectations as of the date of this press release, and Natera disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including with respect to whether the results of clinical or other studies will support the use of our product offerings, the impact of results of such studies, our expectations of the reliability, accuracy, and performance of our tests, or of the benefits of our tests and product offerings to patients, providers, and payers. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in “Risk Factors” in Natera’s recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, and in other filings Natera makes with the SEC from time to time. These documents are available at www.natera.com/investors and www.sec.gov.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112000650/en/

Investor Relations: Mike Brophy, CFO, Natera, Inc., investor@natera.com

Media: Lesley Bogdanow, VP of Corporate Communications, Natera, Inc., pr@natera.com

Source: Natera, Inc.