Cyrus Biotechnology licenses advanced biochemistry software from Indiana University to deliver world-leading protein structure prediction engine
Cyrus offers an easy-to-use cloud pipeline using SparksX software package to accelerate drug development
Seattle, and Indianapolis, October 8, 2015 – Cyrus Biotechnology has signed a software licensing agreement with Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation (IURTC) at Indiana University (IU) to commercialize the SparksX software package developed at the lab of former IU professor Yaoqi Zhou at the Indianapolis campus.
Cyrus offers a highly automated protein structure prediction and design software-as-a-service (SaaS) package, “Cyrus Bench”, for both bench scientists and computational biologists/chemists.
SparksX, combined with Rosetta from David Baker’s lab at the University of Washington (UW) and licensed to Cyrus, leads the competition in protein homology modeling, both in the biennial CASP and weekly CAMEO “blinded” competitions.
SparksX, developed by Zhou and his team, recognizes protein folds and identifies “deep” (difficult to detect) protein sequence similarity, or homology, better than any other software package, winning first place in CASP 6.
The Cyrus founding team brings decades of protein modeling and high-performance computing experience, with UW Professor David Baker, scientific advisor, Lucas Nivon, CEO, Yifan Song, CSO, Javier Castellanos, CTO.
“As a powerful tool for molecular modeling, SparksX is positioned to help further establish Cyrus as a leader in the drug development space. They have a suite of products that were originally developed through academic work across multiple universities, and Cyrus is a fine example of how startup ventures can further the impact of such research and translate these developments into the marketplace. We are delighted to partner with the Cyrus team to bring the SparksX software to market”, said Marie Kerbeshian, VP of Technology Commercialization at IURTC.
