At the intersection of physics and artificial intelligence, a San Francisco-based startup is learning from nature's longest-living creatures to slow human aging itself. Gero, a physics-first AI drug discovery company, has just been named a 2026 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, joining a cohort of 100 early-stage companies from 23 countries working to solve the world's most pressing challenges.
The recognition speaks to a fundamental shift in how scientists approach aging. Rather than treating age-related diseases—heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's—as separate medical problems, Gero's platform identifies them as symptoms of a deeper, more treatable process: aging itself. This matters because aging is one of the largest burdens on global health systems, yet remains underexplored as a target for intervention. Most aging biotech companies focus on restoring youthful function in individual cells. Gero takes a different path: slowing the aging process itself to extend healthspan and delay functional decline across multiple chronic conditions simultaneously.
The company's approach was inspired by a deceptively simple observation: certain mammals, including naked mole-rats, have evolved dramatically slower aging. This biological fact led Gero's founders—Peter Fedichev, PhD, and Jan Gruber, PhD, of the National University of Singapore—to develop a physics-based framework that decodes the physical laws of aging from human data. The framework draws on principles from statistical physics and dynamical systems theory, foundational tools usually reserved for understanding how stars form or how fluids flow. Applying them to aging has helped shape an emerging field called gerophysics, now recognized through a dedicated Nature Portfolio collection.
The platform's power lies in scale. Gero has trained AI models of human health on approximately 10 million longitudinal medical records, drawn from a curated subset of a broader dataset of 100 million records, integrated with molecular, omics, and genetic data. These AI world models learn to distinguish reversible disease states from the deeper, long-timescale aging processes underneath. This capability allows the company to identify therapeutic targets that may address multiple chronic diseases upstream, creating a potential basis for disease-modifying medicines that work on aging itself rather than just its symptoms.
The approach is already attracting serious pharmaceutical partnerships. Gero announced a collaboration with Chugai Pharmaceutical, a member of the Roche Group, that includes an upfront payment plus up to approximately US$250 million in milestone payments, plus royalties. The company has also previously collaborated with Pfizer. These partnerships suggest that major pharmaceutical players see credibility in Gero's physics-based strategy for tackling a problem that has eluded traditional approaches.
As a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, Gero will join a global community of innovators, engaging with public- and private-sector leaders on how emerging technologies can improve business and society. The recognition reflects a growing consensus: aging is not inevitable or untreatable, but a physical process that can be understood, modeled, and intervened upon. For millions of people facing age-related decline, that shift in perspective could mean the difference between decades of healthspan or decline.