Gero, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence (AI) platform that focuses on developing drugs to prevent ageing and other disorders, on Tuesday announced it has received funding worth $2.2 million in a Series A round led by Bulba Ventures, along with existing investors and serial entrepreneurs in the fields of pharmaceuticals, IT and AI.

With this funding, the company has raised a total capital worth $7.5 million.

The latest development has led Yury Melnichek, co-founder of Bulba Ventures, to join Gero’s board of directors.

The company said it will utilize the fresh funds to develop its AI platform for analysing clinical and genetic data to find treatments for “complicated” disease” which are age-related chronic illnesses, mental illnesses and others.

Commenting on the funding, Peter Fedichev, founder of Gero, said, “We are happy with the recognition and support from these strategic investors who themselves are acknowledged leaders in the fields of AI and biotechnology. This will help us attain the necessary knowledge at the junction of biological sciences and AI/ML technologies that is necessary for the radial acceleration of drug discovery.”

“We hope that the technology will soon lead to a meaningful healthspan extension and quality of life improvement,” he added.

The company after analyzing large datasets of medical and genetic information from scores people have found a protein in the blood which if removed or blocked should lead to rejuvenation.

The company said experiments at the National University of Singapore involving aged animals demonstrated mortality delay (life-extension) and functional improvements after a single experimental treatment.

In the future, this new drug could enable patients to recover after a stroke and could help cancer patients in their fight against accelerated ageing resulting from chemotherapy.

The biotech firm’s platform is also currently being used to find therapies for COVID-19 treatment.