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Nautilus co-founders Parag Mallick, left, and Sujal Patel. (Nautilus Photo)
Nautilus Biotechnology has laid off about 16% of its workforce, reducing its headcount to 133 employees and helping provide a cash runway that extends into 2027.
CEO Sujal Patel shared the news on a call with analysts Thursday, during which he disclosed the company’s fourth quarter and 2024 annual financial results.
The company’s corporate and software operations are based in Seattle, while its core R&D work is done in San Carlos in Silicon Valley. The layoffs will impact 25 workers. Nautilus leaders said the reductions will be spread across all areas of the business.
Patel also announced a delay in the commercial release of its proteome analysis platform — technology for identifying and quantifying the thousands of proteins present in biological samples. The platform, including instruments and research reagents, is expected to be available by late 2026.
“We believe that we are positioning Nautilus to ultimately make the maximum possible impact on the marketplace and on biological science,” Patel said.
The company shared that its operating expenses were $20 million in the last quarter of 2024 — which matched its costs for the same period in 2023. With the layoffs and other cost-saving efforts, expenses for the current year should match or come under last year’s budget, Chief Financial Officer Anna Mowry said on the call.
Proteomics is a cutting-edge area of science that aims to improve drug development for challenging diseases. While the genome holds a cell’s blueprints, the proteins encoded by DNA are the workhorses that get things done in biological systems. Researchers often target proteins for drug therapies, so it’s important to know which are present in a given time and place.
Nautilus scientists have focused on tau proteins, which are present in the brain and may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. At a national conference in Philadelphia this week, they shared research in which they identified and quantified the abundance of tau proteomes in mouse and human brains, working towards pinpointing problematic tau variants.
“These preliminary findings have spurred substantive conversations with a number of potential partners interested in exploring tau proteoform landscapes at a resolution never before possible,” Patel said.
The company was launched in 2016 by Patel, who previously founded the data management company Isilon Systems, and Stanford professor Parag Mallick.
Nautilus has attracted notable investors. In 2020, it announced a $76 million Series B round led by Cercano Management, then called Vulcan Capital, which is the holding company created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Perceptive Advisors, Defy Partners and Bezos Expeditions, the VC arm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also invested. So did previous backers AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bolt and Madrona Venture Group.
Nautilus went public in 2021 using a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It initially traded at more than $10 a share — putting its valuation at over $1 billion. The stock is currently priced at less than $2. The SPAC was facilitated through a merger with Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp III, a publicly-traded SPAC sponsored by Perceptive Advisors.
Multiple Seattle-area biotech companies pursued layoffs and closures last year, according to tracking by GeekWire. Biopharma giant Gilead Sciences in November shuttered its Seattle office, laying off 72 workers. Athira Pharma shed 70% of its workforce, Universal Cells cut 24 employees, and BioLife laid off 11% of its workforce.
NanoString Technologies cut roughly 9% of its employees last year after being acquired, bringing an end to its restructuring process, which included a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.
This year will be more challenging for the biotech sector as President Trump and Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, aim to slash federal funding for research. The administration has attempted to cap funding from the National Institutes of Health and freeze the disbursement of already awarded grant dollars.
Federal judges have so far blocked those actions, though there are reports that, in some cases, funding is being illegally withheld.
