December 8, 2021

Cyrus Biotechnology

Cyrus Biotechnology, a Seattle-based biotechnology firm with a proprietary software platform for biologics discovery, announced the closing of a $18M Series B financing and acquisition of Orthogonal Biologics, a deep mutational scanning protein engineering spin-out from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The financing includes investments from OrbiMed Advisors, Trinity Ventures, Agent Capital, Yard Ventures, Washington Research Foundation, iSelect Fund, a leading Asian private equity firm, W Fund, family offices, and individual investors. Selecta Bioscience joined the financing as a strategic investor. Cyrus is focusing the combined software-and-screening platform on the re-design of natural proteins to produce biologics of unique efficacy and safety, meeting unmet medical needs for a range of indications. The firm has initiated a variety of in-house and partnered programs during the past 12 months, and the Orthogonal acquisition now adds a broad-spectrum protein-based COVID-19 therapeutic and another biologic to the pipeline. Programs in autoimmunity are being carried out in partnership with Selecta Biosciences, announced earlier this year. Cyrus also previously announced its collaboration with The Broad Institute in next-generation CRISPR engineering for reduced immunogenicity. Cyrus is based on core software from the lab of David Baker at the University of Washington, and is financed by leading US and Asian biotech and tech investors.