Radicle Science Upgrades AI-Powered Clinical Research Platform for Natural Products

Radicle Science, a health tech company focused on generating clinical evidence for natural products and wellness, has launched Radicle Discovery Gen 2, the latest version of its Proof-as-a-Service platform. The platform integrates clinical trial design, AI, data analytics, and crowdsourced participation to assess the effects of natural products across diverse populations. According to the company, Radicle Discovery Gen 2 represents a significant evolution in what brands can achieve through clinical research.

“Radicle Discovery Gen 2 isn’t just an upgrade — it’s a complete reimagination of clinical research, starting with the end in mind,” said Dr. Jeff Chen and Pelin Thorogood, co-founders of Radicle Science. “We’ve engineered an intelligent platform that combines cutting-edge AI, validated biomarkers, and exponentially flexible trial designs to deliver the kind of speed, precision, and depth the wellness industry has never seen. This is more than innovation; it’s a revolution in how natural products are clinically validated and precision-targeted to subpopulations. Our clients demanded more. Gen 2 delivers exponentially more — without the exponential cost.”

In March, Radicle launched its health impact tracker tool, Journey by Radicle Science. In an interview with Nutraceuticals World at Natural Products Expo West, Chen and Thorogood elaborated on the motivation behind Radicle’s approach.

“We built this because traditional CROs weren’t made for natural products,” said Chen. “They’re slow, expensive, and rigid, and they typically serve pharma. That’s not what wellness brands need.” He emphasized Radicle’s speed and data capabilities, saying, “We can run trials in a matter of weeks, not months or years, and collect both subjective and objective data — including wearables, biomarkers, and digital phenotyping.”

A Category-Redefining Platform

Radicle Discovery Gen 2 is designed to address limitations in conventional contract research organization (CRO) models. The platform offers a tech-enabled, customizable service intended to accelerate claim development, improve the likelihood of success, and deliver more nuanced consumer and product insights.

“We’ve seen that our clients don’t just want a clinical trial — they want evidence that’s actionable for marketing, for personalization, for product development,” said Thorogood. “They want insights they can actually use.”

Expanded Health Indications & Customization
Gen 2 supports research across dozens of health categories, enabling advanced customization options, including outcomes, eligibility, duration, and statistical plan.

Flexible Trial Designs
Radicle’s adaptive design framework provides trial flexibility for different scientific and marketing goals. Gold-standard, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials support the development of strong claims. Open-label trials allow brands to test variations on packages, usage instructions, flavors, or product forms. And brands can leverage in-home use tests (IHUTs) to conduct consumer sensory or impression research.

Expanded Physical Biomarkers
Now offering nearly 100 blood, saliva, stool, and vaginal biomarkers with clinically validated direct-to-consumer (DTC) testing kits.

Expanded Digital Biomarkers and Wearables
Smart technology tools capture a vast amount of health data. Radicle’s menu of digital measurements includes Bluetooth-connected scales, smart-phone based cognition tests, AI-analyzed facial scans, and integrations with wearables including Apple Watch, Oura Ring, and FitBit.

Precision Insights
Radicle’s proprietary Precision Insights analytics are included in every Gen 2 trial at no additional cost. Made possible by large diverse trial data combined with advanced biostatistics and AI cluster analysis, Precision Insights offers scientific and commercial teams actionable intelligence on how the product’s benefits, usage behavior, consumer perceptions, and side effects differ among subpopulations. These insights drive evidence-based personalization and targeting to boost ROI, fueling both precision health strategies and marketing campaigns.

Additionally, Radicle is now streamlining the management of its large-scale trials — often involving thousands of participants — by augmenting its research team with AI agents. These intelligent agents assist with participant communication and engagement to enhance responsiveness, scalability, and consistency, according to the company.

By handling time-intensive coordination tasks, the AI agents free up Radicle’s human scientists to focus on higher-order activity, improving the overall trial experience without sacrificing the human touch. The company also uses AI to learn from its aggregate anonymized clinical dataset built through collaborations across the industry.

“We’re building a system that learns with every trial. It gets smarter the more data we generate. That’s the whole idea — scalable evidence, not one-off studies,” Thorogood told Nutraceuticals World in March.

“What we’re doing is bringing rigor, at scale, to a space that’s been under-evidenced for too long,” Chen added. “But we’re also making it accessible and fast, so brands don’t have to choose between quality and speed.”

Radicle Discovery Gen 2 replaces outdated, rigid contract research models with a more modern, customizable, and insights-rich experience. Built for “speed-to-claim, speed-to-market, and speed-to-insight,” Radicle Science said it is continuing to transform what a clinical trial can be and what it can deliver to unlock the future of wellness.