What Cyrus Biotechnology does

Cyrus Biotechnology is a Seattle-based pre-clinical-stage biologics discovery company that combines the Rosetta protein design platform with proprietary AI algorithms and large-scale deep mutagenesis laboratory screening to engineer natural proteins into improved therapeutics. Founded in 2015 by David Baker, Lucas Nivon, and Yifan Song as a spinout of the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design, the company has worked with more than 120 biopharma partners, including 13 of the top-20 global pharma firms, on 30+ active discovery programs. Its platform layers structure prediction (AlphaFold2, OpenFold), generative design (ProteinMPNN, Rosetta), and high-throughput experimental validation to optimize affinity, specificity, stability, solubility, half-life, and immunogenicity in parallel.

The company is building an internal pre-clinical pipeline led by CYR212, an IgG-cleaving IdeS variant for chronic IgG-driven autoimmune diseases such as generalized myasthenia gravis and immune thrombocytopenia that addresses an estimated greater than $20B clinical market opportunity. Other pipeline assets include an IL-22 fusion protein resistant to IL-22BP, a half-life-optimized IL-15 variant for oncology, an ACE2-IgG Fc decoy for ARDS, and an hCMV receptor decoy for congenital CMV. Beyond its internal pipeline, Cyrus offers Cyrus Bench, a SaaS protein engineering platform built on Rosetta, and co-founded the OpenFold consortium alongside Amazon, NVIDIA, Genentech/Prescient Design, Outpace Bio, and Arzeda to develop open-source protein AI foundation models; Cyrus CEO Lucas Nivon sits on OpenFold's four-person Executive Committee directing research priorities.

Cyrus operates a B2B partnerships business, monetizing through milestone- and royalty-bearing collaborations with biotech and pharma rather than direct software licensing. Representative partners include Janssen, Genentech, Nimbus Therapeutics, Selecta Biosciences, Broad Institute, Novo Nordisk, and Outpace Bio, with collaborations structured around upfront payments, discovery and development milestones, and sales-based royalties. In December 2024 the company spun out its protein AI and Rosetta services into Levitate Bio as a separate entity, signaling a narrowing of Cyrus's own commercial focus toward internal pipeline development.

Name

Cyrus Biotechnology

Legal name

Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc.

Website

https://cyrusbio.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cyrus Biotechnology is a Seattle-based pre-clinical biotech that uses Rosetta-based computational protein design, proprietary AI algorithms, and deep mutagenesis scanning to engineer improved biologics for pharma partners and advance an internal pipeline led by the IdeS candidate CYR212.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Computational Protein Design Platform

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing (325414), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836), Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening) (HLAAAIAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Protein Engineering & Directed Evolution Platforms (enzyme/therapeutic protein optimization) (HLAAAIAC), AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO), Antibody Discovery & Engineering Platforms (display tech, bispecifics, Fc engineering) (HLAAAIAB), Protein Interaction & Structural Biology Platforms (cryo-EM, X-ray, NMR, biophysics) (HLAAAIAH)

Keywords

• Computational protein design
• Biologics drug discovery
• Protein engineering platform
• Antibody structure prediction
• Biopharma research software

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Collaborative Drug Discovery Partnerships: Milestone and royalty-based collaborations with biotech and pharma companies. Cyrus provides protein engineering services and computational platform access in exchange for upfront payments, discovery/development milestones, and sales-based royalties. Examples include Selecta Biosciences collaboration for IL-2 protein agonists.
2. Acquisition of Orthogonal Biologics: Acquired Orthogonal Biologics in December 2021 as part of $18M Series B financing to form integrated drug discovery firm with expanded capabilities in deep mutational scanning and internal pipeline development
3. Internal Drug Pipeline Development: Advancing proprietary pre-clinical assets including CYR212 (IdeS for IgG-driven autoimmune disease), IL-22, IL-15, ACE2v2 for ARDS, and hCMV receptor decoy. Pipeline includes both internal programs and partnering pipeline programs.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Cyrus Biotechnology operates an AI-enhanced computational protein design platform that combines the Rosetta software suite, proprietary AI algorithms, deep mutagenesis scanning, and large-scale laboratory screening. The company re-engineers natural proteins into superior therapeutics for biotech and pharma partners through integrated computational design and wet-lab iteration. It also advances an internal pre-clinical pipeline of engineered biologics candidates, including an engineered IgG protease (IdeS) for IgG-driven autoimmune disease and engineered immune cytokines (IL-22, IL-15), and co-founded the OpenFold open-source protein AI consortium.

Product overview

Cyrus Biotechnology is a computationally-driven biologics discovery company offering an integrated platform that combines AI-based protein design software (including Rosetta and proprietary algorithms), deep mutagenesis scanning capabilities, and wet laboratory protein engineering. The core platform enables re-engineering of natural proteins into superior therapeutics. Key products include internal pipeline candidates: CYR212 (IgG protease for autoimmune diseases), ACE2v2-Fc (ARDS therapeutic), Next-Gen IL-22 and IL-15 (immunocytokines), and hCMV Receptor Decoy. The company also offers Cyrus Bench, a SaaS protein engineering platform, and co-founded the OpenFold Consortium for open-source protein AI. Services include CRISPR optimization with Broad Institute and IL-2 agonist development with Selecta Biosciences.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cyrus Bench: SaaS platform for protein engineering
• Cyrus IdeS
• CYR212
• ACE2v2

Products and services

• Cyrus Bio Platform Computationally-driven biologics discovery platform combining AI, Rosetta computational methods, and large-scale laboratory screening for re-engineering natural proteins into superior therapeutics, delivered as collaborative discovery services for partner partners.
• Cyrus Bench SaaS platform for protein engineering offering commercial access to Rosetta software and proprietary algorithms for structure prediction, mutagenesis, and protein design; used with top-20 pharma clients and cited in published protein stability research.
• OpenFold Consortium Non-profit AI research consortium co-founded by Cyrus with Amazon, NVIDIA, Genentech, Outpace, Arzeda, Mohammed AlQuraishi's lab and Bayer, developing open-source protein AI foundation models including OpenFold3 for proteins, nucleic acids, and drugs.
• CYR212 (Next-Gen IdeS) Engineered IgG protease for chronic IgG-driven autoimmune diseases with improved half-life and 1000x reduced human antibody binding; selected as Cyrus's clinical candidate for myasthenia gravis and immune thrombocytopenia.
• ACE2v2-Fc Optimized ACE2-IgG Fc fusion protein with extended half-life and glycosylation optimization for treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome; in early IND-enabling studies.
• Next-Gen IL-22 IL-22 fusion protein engineered to be resistant to naturally occurring IL-22 Binding Protein with extended half-life; promotes tissue protection and regeneration for gastrointestinal, viral infection and metabolic indications.
• Next-Gen IL-15 IL-15 variant with proprietary AI-designed slow-release modification that expands the therapeutic window by reducing toxicity; activates effector T-cells and NK cells for solid and hematologic tumor applications.
• hCMV Receptor Decoy Engineered human cytomegalovirus receptor decoy with high specificity and extended half-life as a novel therapeutic for congenital CMV; in non-human primate studies.

Quantifiable outcome

• IdeS reduces IgG levels by >99% in minutes, compared to 60-80% reduction over days with FcRn blockers
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major, strategic and supporting.

• Orthogonal BiologicscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcquired by Cyrus Biotechnology in December 2021 as part of $18M Series B financing. Deep mutational scanning protein engineering spin-out from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Dr. Erik Procko, formerly CEO at Orthogonal Biologics, joined Cyrus as Director of Discovery. The acquisition provided unique mammalian cell-based deep mutational scanning capabilities.
• Selecta BiosciencescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProtein engineering collaboration combining Selecta's ImmTOR platform with Cyrus' ability to radically redesign protein therapeutics. First program: proprietary IL-2 protein agonist designed to selectively promote expansion of regulatory T cells (Treg) for autoimmune diseases. Selecta provided upfront payment; Cyrus eligible for discovery, development and sales milestones.
• Broad Institute of MIT and HarvardcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-target collaboration to optimize CRISPR for human therapeutics by mitigating immune responses against CRISPR. Principal investigator: Feng Zhang (Howard Hughes Medical Institute). Researchers from Cyrus and Broad working together on deimmunization. Results to be published and freely available to academic community.
• OpenFold ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit AI research consortium co-founded by Cyrus in February 2022 with Mohammed AlQuraishi's lab, Genentech/Prescient Design, Outpace Bio, Arzeda, and others. Goal: develop free and open-source software tools for biology and drug discovery. Cyrus CEO Lucas Nivon serves on 4-person Executive Committee. OpenFold surpasses AlphaFold2 in speed and memory on NVIDIA chips.
• AmazonmajorTechnology or IntegrationCo-founder of OpenFold Consortium. Amazon provides cloud infrastructure and computational resources supporting the consortium's mission to develop open-source protein AI tools.
• NVIDIAmajorTechnology or IntegrationCo-founder of OpenFold Consortium. NVIDIA chips (Tesla T4, etc.) enable training and inference for protein AI models. OpenFold specifically tuned for commercial NVIDIA GPU chips.
• GenentechmajorTechnology or IntegrationCo-founder of OpenFold Consortium through Prescient Design. Contributing to development of open-source protein AI foundation models for drug discovery.
• Outpace BiomajorTechnology or IntegrationCo-founder of OpenFold Consortium. Early adopter of OpenFold3 for engineered cell-therapy circuits applications.
• ArzedamajorTechnology or IntegrationCo-founder of OpenFold Consortium. Contributing computational protein design expertise to open-source AI tools for biology.
• BayerstrategicTechnology or IntegrationJoined OpenFold Consortium in November 2022. Interested in AI-driven pharmaceutical and agricultural product design. Dr. Ruth Wagner, VP Head of Plant Biotechnology Data Science at Bayer Crop Science leads engagement.
• Novo NordiskstrategicTechnology or IntegrationEarly adopter of OpenFold3 for small-molecule discovery applications as part of federated initiative through AI Structural Biology Network.
• Bayer Crop SciencestrategicTechnology or IntegrationEarly adopter of OpenFold3 as part of AI Structural Biology Network with top-20 pharma companies leveraging proprietary structural data.
• University of Washington Institute for Protein Design (IPD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCyrus platform based on core Rosetta software from David Baker's lab at UW IPD. IPD achieved all major firsts in protein design including first designed protein and first de novo enzyme. Seattle region anchors world-class AI-driven biotech hub centered on IPD.
• Life Science WashingtonsupportingGTM or Marketing PartnerNonprofit trade association helping Washington's $41.2B life sciences ecosystem communicate value to investors. Provides pitch coaching and narrative development. Working to connect biotech companies with Big Tech AI expertise.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Public AI-driven drug discovery platform combining high-throughput biology with ML, serving similar biotech and pharma customer needs. Larger and broader in scope than Cyrus but directly comparable in computational drug-discovery partnerships with top-20 pharma.
• Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet-backed drug discovery company building on DeepMind's AlphaFold, combining AI protein structure prediction with pharma partnerships. A deep-pocketed competitor targeting the same top-pharma biologics-discovery wallet share.

Direct peers

• Schrödinger: Public computational chemistry and biologics platform combining physics-based modeling with ML for drug discovery. Directly overlaps Cyrus on AI/ML-enabled protein structure prediction and biologics design, and was the named competitor in Cyrus's BIOCAD benchmark.
• Generate Biomedicines: AI-driven generative biology company creating novel protein therapeutics using machine learning. Competes with Cyrus for AI-engineered biologic partnerships with top-20 pharma and operates in the same protein-design platform category.
• AbCellera: Public antibody discovery platform combining AI/high-throughput screening with pharma partnerships. Overlaps with Cyrus's NextGen Antibody offering and competes for the same antibody-engineering economics from top-20 pharma partners.
• Arzeda: Computational protein design company co-founding OpenFold with Cyrus. Works on protein design for therapeutics and industrial applications, with overlapping AI/structure-prediction capabilities and shared consortium infrastructure.
• Outpace Bio: Cell-therapy company using AI-driven protein design to engineer smart cells. Co-founder in the OpenFold consortium and direct collaborator/competitor in applying Cyrus-style protein engineering to immuno-oncology and cell therapy.

Emerging players

• Cradle Bio: AI protein engineering platform focused on programmable biology for therapeutics and industrial applications. Comparable in stage and AI-protein approach but with broader small-molecule and enzyme focus than Cyrus's biologics orientation.
• BigHat Biosciences: AI/ML-driven antibody design company combining ML with wet-lab validation for next-generation antibodies. Direct overlap on antibody engineering use cases and competes for the same AI-biologics partnerships with pharma.
• EvolutionaryScale (ESM): AI protein language model company developing foundation models for biology. Adjacent competitor for AI-protein infrastructure, contributing to the same open-vs-closed debate that Cyrus navigates via OpenFold consortium leadership.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cyrusbiotech
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cyrus-biotechnology

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds10 records

Investors12 records

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M&A1 record

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Cyrus Biotechnology