Baker’s technology overcoming challenges in developing protein drugs
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cyrus Biotechnology today congratulated David Baker from the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind for winning and sharing the Nobel Laureate Award in Chemistry based on their extraordinary discoveries in designing and predicting protein structures. Baker, who co-founded Cyrus with Lucas Nivon and Yifan Song, who trained under his leadership, was the first to make high accuracy protein structure predictions, design a novel protein in a computer, and has since achieved many “firsts” in the field. His work includes artificial proteins with new topologies and structures, and hyperstable miniproteins that can act in the challenging environments of the human gut and airways. In addition his work includes new vaccine platforms including for COVID-19, and novel proteins that block viruses or cancer-associated factors. The three laureates’ research also greatly accelerated innovation in the protein AI field and today almost any protein structure can be designed.
“Since being founded in the Baker lab, Cyrus Biotechnology has been proud to be part of this history and is focused on bringing the best of these new technologies to patients through the design of innovative therapeutics,” said Lucas Nivon, Cyrus CEO. “By applying the technology created by Baker’s team, Cyrus scientists are solving some of the biggest challenges of protein drugs, while also developing our own algorithms and new datasets in-house and with the Openfold AI consortium that Cyrus co-founded in 2022,” Lucas added.
Protein drugs often cause strong immune reactions in patients, which can limit drug potency and pose unacceptable safety risks. AI methods are assisting Cyrus researchers in predicting what parts of a protein are immunogenic and how best to modify these without damaging desirable properties. AI methods are also being applied at Cyrus to design therapeutics based on natural proteins, but which have better stability, activity, and potency as well as reduced immunogenicity.
“Cyrus Biotechnology’s engineering of the enzyme IdeS is but one excellent example that connects the tools of the Baker lab to a drug candidate heading to the clinic. IdeS is a highly immunogenic protease from a bacterial pathogen that degrades antibodies, an ideal mechanism for the treatment of antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases such as immune thrombocytopenia, myasthenia gravis, and rheumatoid arthritis, and a total of over 70 known autoimmune diseases with poor current standard of care,” said Yifan Song, Chief Scientific Officer.
Cyrus Biotechnology is expecting to bring a variant of IdeS optimized by AI methods to first-in-human trials in 2026.
About Cyrus Biotechnology
Cyrus Biotechnology is a pre-clinical-stage AI-driven therapeutics company with an internal pipeline of novel biologics primarily in autoimmune indications. Cyrus is advancing a next generation IdeS IgG protease with half-life extension and immunogenicity optimization, for treatment of IgG-mediated autoimmune indications, into IND-enabling studies, as well as advancing multiple discovery stage cytokine programs. Cyrus was co-founded with Prof. David Baker, inventor of Rosetta and numerous protein design AI tools, and has worked with dozens of Pharma firms on protein redesign for novel therapeutics, including Genentech, Janssen, and Selecta. In 2021 Cyrus started to develop its own therapeutics. Cyrus’ investors are Orbimed, Agent Capital, Hillhouse, Alexandria, and others.
For more information about Cyrus please visit https://cyrusbio.com/
NOTICE: The information contained in this document is dated as of Oct 9, 2024. Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc. (the Company) disclaims any obligation to update such information after such date. This document contains forward–looking statements reflecting the Company’s current expectations that necessarily involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements due to a number of factors and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the issuance of this press release.
Contacts
Lucas Nivon
lucas@cyrusbio.com
206-258-6561
