Connect with us

Technology

$101M XPRIZE HEALTHSPAN AWARDS FIRST MILESTONE WINNERS DRIVING TOWARD REVOLUTIONARY HEALTHY AGING ADVANCES

Published

on

Over 600 competing teams from 58 countries entered global competition. Teams with a broad range of potential solutions for healthspan extension awarded in first round.

NEW YORK, May 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, today announced the first Milestone award winners and top semifinalist teams competing in the next stage of its XPRIZE Healthspan, a $101 million, 7-year global competition incentivizing teams to develop and test therapeutics to improve healthy aging and close the gap between life and health expectancy. XPRIZE also announced the eight finalist teams competing for the $10M Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) Bonus Prize. The announcement was made today at the XPRIZE Healthspan Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Global life expectancy has more than doubled in the last 100 years, but the quality of our health as we age has not increased at the same rate. In the U.S. there is currently a 12-year gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, or the period of life free of major chronic disease or disability. Launched in November 2023, the $101M XPRIZE Healthspan is the first health-focused competition of its kind, incentivizing teams to develop proactive, accessible therapeutic solutions that restore muscle, cognition, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years, with a goal of 20 years, in persons aged 50-80 years, in one year or less.

“The next breakthrough in aging could come from scientists and entrepreneurs, anywhere. With this prize, we’re igniting a global healthspan revolution, and these semifinalists are leading the charge,” said Peter H. Diamandis, MD, founder and executive chairman of XPRIZE. “This competition isn’t just accelerating progress, it’s challenging our society’s beliefs in what’s possible when it comes to aging.”

From over 600 registered teams across 58 countries, the Top 100 teams are recognized as semifinalists, with the Top 40 Healthspan teams and Top 8 FSHD Bonus Prize teams selected as Milestone 1 award winners based on their proposed therapeutic solution, scientific rationale, supporting evidence, strengths of team and clinical center, and proposals for clinical testing. Each Milestone 1 winner was awarded $250,000 to support their ongoing work and conduct clinical trials in the next phase of the competition.

The most prevalent solutions submitted by XPRIZE Healthspan teams fall into broad categories such as: biologic therapies, drugs and small molecules, lifestyle interventions, medical devices, and nutraceuticals and functional foods. Many teams indicate intent to pursue integrated, personalized strategies, combining approaches, like dietary interventions paired with new or generic drugs or even cell therapies. The teams propose therapies that affect a wide range of biological systems, from metabolism and inflammation to stem cells, and may have general health effects or specific targets like the mitochondria or the growth of neurons. No single system or approach dominates, highlighting the diversity of solutions being explored through the competition.

“We are thrilled by the unprecedented global response to this competition, and the powerful, innovative thinking and approaches we’re seeing proposed by these teams,” said Jamie Justice, Ph.D., executive director, XPRIZE Healthspan. “Our semifinalist teams are exploring a diverse array of strategies to extend healthspan, from biologics and devices to drugs, lifestyle interventions, and personalized monitoring, coupling breakthrough innovations with feasibility and safety. We’re encouraged by these initial results and are eager to see how these solutions progress as they move toward clinical trials.”

Note, registration in this competition remains open and teams are continuing to register to participate in follow-on rounds and the grand prize.

The following teams have been selected to advance as XPRIZE Healthspan Top 40 Milestone 1 awardees:

A NEW DIMENSION, San Jose, CA ABE YOANDO PHARMA CO LTD,
Adachi, Tokyo, Japan
AGELESSRX, Ann Arbor, MI ANI BIOME, San Francisco, CA AUTOPHAGYGO, Osaka, Japan BIOAGE LABS, California, USA BIOARMOR, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia BOSTON HEALTHSPAN TEAM,
Boston, MA
CANADIAN TRANSLATIONAL
GEROSCIENCE NETWORK,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
CIRCADIAN, San Diego, CA EXOMED, New South Wales,
Australia
GI INNOVATION, Seoul, South Korea GODA LAB, Bunkyo City, Tokyo,
Japan
HEALTHY LONGEVITY CLINIC,
Boca Raton, FL
INTERVENE IMMUNE, Los Angeles,
CA,
PROMETHEUS CELL TEAM,
Shanghai, China
REJUVENATION THROUGH LOW FREQUENCY ULTRASOUND, San
Antonio, TX
RPRGAON-PROGERIA, Busan,
South Korea
SANJEEVINI, Mumbai, India TEAM GLYNAC, Houston, TX THE HEALTHY BODY AND MIND,
St. Louis, MO
TIME TRAVELER AND CURREIO,
Tokyo, Japan
TIMELINE, Lausanne, Switzerland UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL INSTITUTE (IHU) HEALTHAGE, Occitanie, Haute
Garonne
VITA, Barcelona, Spain YOXLO, Oegstgeest, Netherlands

 

JAPAN LONGEVITY CONSORTIUM,
Tokyo, Japan
KIMERA LABS, Miami, FL LIONHEART HEALTH INC, Newport
Beach, CA
LOGIN (LONGEVITY INNOVATOR),
Sendai Miyagi, Japan
LONGEVERON INC, Miami, FL LONGEVITY IMMUNOTHERAPY,
Irvine, CA
LONO JAEYAK, Gunsan Jeonbuk-
do, South Korea
METFORMIN FOR HEALTHSPAN EXTENSION (METHEALTHSPAN),
New York, NY
MINICIRCLE, Austin, TX MITO-TAGS, Palo Alto, CA MITOCHONDRIAL ALL-STARS,
Needham, MA
MITOCHONDRIAL BIOENERGETICS AND KETONE UTILIZATION, San Diego, CA NUS ACADEMY FOR HEALTHY
LONGEVITY, Singapore
NYC-VITA, New York, NY

 

All semifinalist teams – Top 100 and late-registering teams included – will begin early stage clinical trials over the next year and will submit their data in April 2026 for the next round of judging in the Healthspan competition. Translating findings from the lab to clinical testing is a major hurdle for teams as it requires safety assessment, regulatory approval, testing partners, and investors or funders. In July 2026, XPRIZE will announce the 10 finalists selected to receive the second $10 million milestone prize. These teams will then advance to finals and must test their therapeutic solution for up to one year in adults aged 50-80 years in clinical trials, running from 2026 to 2029. The finalists’ trials will be supported by the University of Utah and its Data Coordinating Center (DCC), which will serve as the DCC for XPRIZE Healthspan. The competition will culminate in 2030, when the grand prize winner is awarded up to $81 million.

“Hevolution Foundation is dedicated to revolutionizing the healthspan science field and transforming the way we approach aging, as demonstrated by our support as the single-largest funder of XPRIZE Healthspan,” said Dr. Mehmood Khan, CEO of Hevolution Foundation and Co-Title Sponsor of XPRIZE Healthspan. “We are thrilled with the progress made at this pivotal prize milestone and are eager to see how these promising solutions evolve. Together, we are driving toward the goal to propel aging research forward globally and achieve medical breakthroughs to help humanity live healthier, longer.”

FSHD Bonus Prize

The FSHD Bonus Prize is designed to ignite solutions for FSHD, a genetic disease that impacts muscular function that has limited treatment options due to its complexity. Eight finalist teams received $250,000 each for demonstrating feasible FSHD solutions, an equal split of the $2 million Milestone 1 prize purse. The FSHD Bonus Prize will be awarded to the team that best demonstrates the ability to restore lost muscular function due to FSHD in one year or less and the first place team will receive $8 million.

The finalist teams include:

Altay Therapeutics Inc., San Carlos, CAAni Biome, San Francisco, CAArmatus Bio, Columbus, OHAsagi Labs, Nagano, JapanBeat-FSHD, Los Angeles, CAEpicrispr Biotechnologies, Inc., San Francisco, CAModalis Therapeutics Corporation, Tokyo, JapanSNPM/Chu De Nice, Nice, France

“Chronic diseases like muscular dystrophy are a major contributor to the gap between lifespan and healthspan. New solutions are essential for people to live healthier, longer lives,” said Chip Wilson, Founder and Chairman of SOLVE FSHD and Co-Title Sponsor of XPRIZE Healthspan. “XPRIZE Healthspan and SOLVE FSHD are here to push the boundaries of what healthy aging can look like. The next five years are going to show us what’s possible.”

XPRIZE Healthspan is offered with support from Co-Title Sponsors Hevolution Foundation and Chip Wilson, founder and chairman of SOLVE FSHD. GSK, a global biopharma company joins XPRIZE Healthspan as the Official Pharmaceutical Industry partner. Additional contributions from individual benefactors include Christian Angermayer, Carl B. Barney, the Blundy Family, Kas Bordier, Peter H. Diamandis, Charlie and Lorie Epstein, the Eleanor and Howard Morgan Family Foundation, Dana and Rob Hamwee, Daniel Krizek, Nancy and Howard Marks, Chris Ouwinga, Christian Peneff, SeneGence, Mark S. Siegel, Todd and Karen Wanek, Sergey Young, and an anonymous donor. Global scientific advisors, including the Scientific Director at National Institute on Aging, Senior Scientific Director at American Federation for Aging Research, Director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center, and Head of Clinical Medicine at University of Cambridge, have helped inform the prize design and will advise in various capacities throughout the competition.

Learn more and get involved at xprize.org/healthspan.

About XPRIZE
XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at xprize.org.

About Hevolution
Founded on the belief that every person has the right to live a longer, healthier life, Hevolution Foundation is a global catalyst, partner, and convener on a mission to drive efforts to extend healthy human lifespan and understand the processes of aging. With a focus on aging as a treatable process, Hevolution Foundation aims to increase the number of aging-related treatments on the market, compress the timeline of drug development, and increase accessibility to therapeutics that extend healthy lifespan, also known as healthspan. A global non-profit organization headquartered in Riyadh with a North American hub and an annual budget of up to $1 billion, Hevolution Foundation plans to open offices in other global locations to support a cutting-edge, global ecosystem of talent to propel aging and geroscience research forward and achieve medical breakthroughs to help humanity live healthier, longer. Learn more at hevolution.com

About SOLVE FSHD
SOLVE FSHD is a venture philanthropic organization established to catalyze innovation and accelerate key research in finding a cure for FSHD, established by renowned Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist, Chip Wilson. The Wilson family has committed $100 million to kick-start funding into projects that support the organization’s mission to find a cure for FSHD by 2027. The goal of SOLVE FSHD is to find a solution that can slow down or stop muscle degeneration, increase muscle regeneration and strength, and improve the quality of life for those living with FSHD. If you want to find out more about our efforts at SOLVE FSHD, please see our website – solvefshd.com

About GSK
GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. Find out more at gsk.com.

Media Contact:
Katy Frame 
kframe@brgcommunications.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/101m-xprize-healthspan-awards-first-milestone-winners-driving-toward-revolutionary-healthy-aging-advances-302452290.html

SOURCE XPRIZE Foundation

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

Published

on

By

New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

Continue Reading

Trending