Biolyz Partners with Borussia Dortmund to Bring High-Frequency Saliva Biomarker Testing to Elite Football

Biolyz, an Austrian deep-tech company pioneering high-resolution saliva analytics, announced a long-term partnership with Borussia Dortmund following a successful pilot throughout the 2024/2025 Bundesliga season. The club has signed a three-year agreement and is integrating Biolyz’s non-invasive testing technology across its performance and medical operations beginning this season.

The collaboration marks a major advancement in precision diagnostics for professional football, offering teams real-time insights into physiological stress, recovery, inflammation, nutritional status, and overall readiness. Additional Bundesliga teams have already adopted the platform, with more clubs currently in active negotiations. Biolyz is also preparing its Premier League rollout for the ongoing season.

Transforming Elite Performance With High-Frequency Internal Data

While GPS systems, wearables, and video tracking quantify external load, Biolyz measures what truly matters: the inner physiological response of each athlete. Using advanced mass spectrometry and AI-driven analytics, Biolyz captures over 100 biomarkers per sample — enabling coaches, performance staff, and medical teams to detect trends long before they translate into decreased performance or injury.

Through the pilot season with Borussia Dortmund:

• 12,000+ samples were collected and analyzed

• Over 1 million biomarker datapoints were evaluated

• Players were tested 2–5 times per week versus monthly blood draws

• Team-level trends in hydration, stress, and recovery were visible for the first time

These insights empowered Dortmund to optimize match-day preparation, manage individual workloads, identify risk factors early, and meaningfully improve injury prevention efforts across the squad.

A New Layer of Objectivity in Performance Diagnostics

Biolyz offers the analytical depth of blood testing with the usability of a wearable — but without needles, clinic visits, or low-frequency sampling, enabling true continuous monitoring.

Key capabilities include:

• Non-invasive, high-frequency testing: Self-performed saliva sampling

• 100+ biomarkers per test: Stress, sleep, metabolic strain, recovery capacity

• AI-powered pattern detection: Biomarker trends at individual and squad level

• Early warning signals: Detection of overload and injury-related risk factors

• Personalized reference ranges: Athlete-specific baselines instead of population averages

This granular visibility enhances training periodization, nutrition strategies, and return-to-play decisions — supporting both performance and long-term athlete health.

Endorsements From Experts Inside the Club

Dr. Markus Braun, Team Doctor, Borussia Dortmund: “The testing helped us, especially during the intense second half of the season, to better understand players’ physiological responses to strain. We now gain far clearer insights into what is happening inside an athlete’s body.”

Sebastian Kehl, Sporting Director, Borussia Dortmund: “Biolyz has contributed significantly to improving player management. Today, we are facing far fewer injuries thanks to more precise control over workload and recovery.”

Prof. Dr. Dr. Philipp Zimmer, TU Dortmund, Sports Medicine: “Deploying a high-resolution measurement method at high frequency is a true game-changer in elite sports. It adds substantial value to systems like GPS tracking by quantifying internal load and recovery.”

Scaling Across Europe and Beyond

Biolyz’s success with Borussia Dortmund signals a broader shift toward biomarker-driven performance management in elite sport. Multiple Bundesliga clubs have already adopted the system, with additional teams expected to come online soon. The company is simultaneously accelerating its international expansion, beginning with the Premier League this season.

In the coming years, Biolyz plans to extend its platform to other professional sports, including basketball and American football, as well as to amateur athletes and preventive health applications.

What Biolyz Says

Marlon Millard, Founder & CEO, Biolyz: “Blood tests and wearables alone cannot capture the internal chemistry of an athlete with the precision and frequency required. Our method finally answers the question: How is the player — today? This technology has the potential to redefine the limits of human performance.”