Gero – a biotechnology company focused on aging and chronic diseases – announced that it has closed $6 million in a Series A extension round. This funding round positions the company to continue internal drug development programs, grow its scientific team to boost platform technology development, and expand its US presence.
The funding round was led by Melnichek Investments (a Cyprus-based VC firm seeking to improve the quality of human lives by funding and supporting potentially high-impact machine-learning startups), with the participation of VitaDAO and Leonid Lozner (Co-founder of EPAM Systems).
In utilizing cutting-edge generative AI tools to analyze real-world longitudinal human health data, Gero is focused on finding novel cures for age-related diseases. The goal is to unravel the mysteries behind human aging and halt the aging process.
Earlier this year, Gero announced a research collaboration with Pfizer, and the company is in discussions with other pharmaceutical companies that are evaluating age-related diseases as a growing market. And the large health model developed by Gero was trained to differentiate the specific effects of aging from the effects of diseases to revolutionize genetics-driven drug discovery against the most common conditions potentially.
There is also a separate ongoing Gero project to develop a therapeutic, which would be instrumental in the treatment of senescence-associated diseases. This effort resulted in one of the most robust mice rejuvenation results globally. And the company’s scientific research unequivocally supports the notion that targeting the specific phenotype (the rate at which humans lose resilience) holds the key to achieving a substantial extension of health- and life span (EurekAlert, bioRxiv).
Gero also has a unique value proposition for pharmaceutical companies are looking to identify new technology platforms for in-licensing and co-development. And Gero’s drug-development platform enables target discovery against chronic age-related diseases directly in human data. The current genetics-based approaches to target discovery rarely lead to newly approved therapies for chronic diseases, interlinked via aging. Gero’s approach allows separating the effects of aging from the effects of diseases enabling human genetics-driven target discovery for chronic and age-related diseases.
Gero’s large health models (LHMs) are generative and predictive models of human health. And they are functionally similar to large language models (LLMs) – which are trained on massive datasets using unsupervised learning methodologies. In contrast, LHMs are trained on newly available longitudinal human health record datasets in the same unsupervised manner using physics-based models as guidance. And the resultant LHMs are then able to predict human health outcomes.
Unlike LLMs, LHMs are fully interpretable – meaning that they can provide both a prediction and an explanation for that prediction. And the findings can be validated and verified for accuracy. Since Gero’s LHMs are based on real human data, the drug research and discovery process is radically faster than traditional studies using mice or other laboratory animals and has a higher level of fidelity to actual human biology.
KEY QUOTES:
“The large health model that we have trained is instrumental in the discovery of therapies targeting aging and age-related diseases, both in-house and via collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. Thanks to this recent funding from Melnichek Investments, coupled with their expertise in modern AI through backing many successful companies, we are now well positioned to accelerate our progress.”
— Peter Fedichev, Gero co-founder and CEO
“AI technology has become a powerful ally in the therapeutic design toolset. Age-related diseases are complicated to unravel and advances will rely heavily on an understanding of extremely large data sets — far beyond the capabilities of human researchers. Gero’s work is showing the importance of that realization and the solutions that are possible.”
— Eleanor Davies, steward of the Longevity Science Working Group at VitaDAO, a participant in the round
“By targeting the underlying processes of aging, Gero’s therapeutics have the potential to mitigate the burden of age-related illnesses and enhance the quality of life for individuals worldwide. Moreover, as populations age and healthcare costs escalate, Gero’s research and development efforts offer a ray of hope for more effective and sustainable healthcare solutions.”
— Gero Co-Founder Yury Melnichek
“Our gratitude goes out to Melnichek Investments and our other investors for their continuous support. Having already made significant progress in fundamental research, we are now expanding towards resource-intensive drug development projects. As we look ahead, we anticipate a new funding round in the near future, and we invite potential investors to engage in early conversations with us.”
— Gero co-founder Maxim Kholin
