Seattle startup Cyrus Biotechnology is spinning out a new for-profit subsidiary called Levitate Bio, which will expand access to the company’s software technology that is used for modeling biomolecular compounds. The Rosetta Commons Foundation, created by RosettaCommons, a multi-institution coalition, will own Levitate Bio. The University of Washington has issued over 60,000 non-commercial licenses to Rosetta users and more than 200 licenses to commercial organizations. David Baker, who runs the lab that developed Rosetta, advocates for open-source tools in order to encourage innovation in the biotech industry.
The spinoff of Levitate Bio is in line with a trend in the software industry of pairing a for-profit services/software business with a non-profit organization advancing core technology for industry-wide benefits. Cyrus Biotechnology, a drug company focused on autoimmune diseases, will continue to use the Cyrus platform while Levitate Bio focuses on expanding access to its software technology. The new subsidiary will be led by CEO Sam DeLuca, the former director of engineering at Cyrus, and Karen Khar, who will serve as executive vice president of sales and business development.
Levitate Bio’s team includes engineers, bioinformatics developers, and computational protein engineers with experience in physics- and AI-based algorithms. The goal of the new subsidiary is to support innovation in drug development, agriculture, synthetic biology, and manufacturing by providing broader access to its software technology. This move is part of Cyrus Biotechnology’s strategy to expand access to its technology while continuing to focus on its drug development efforts for autoimmune diseases. The Rosetta Commons Foundation, which will own Levitate Bio, was created by the Rosetta Commons coalition that built the Rosetta software platform.
David Baker, the director of the UW’s Institute for Protein Design, believes that providing open-source tools in the biotech industry is crucial for fostering innovation. By making code freely available, companies can innovate more broadly and benefit the industry as a whole. Levitate Bio’s creation as a for-profit subsidiary of Cyrus Biotechnology represents a step towards expanding access to software technology that can support innovation in various sectors. The team at Levitate Bio is comprised of experienced professionals with backgrounds in engineering, bioinformatics, and computational protein engineering, all working towards advancing the use of software technology in various industries.
