Computational biology has made huge leaps forward in the last decade, with the first designs of biologically active proteins by software. This software, Rosetta, was named one of the top-10 scientific breakthroughs of 2016. Rosetta-designed proteins can treat brain cancer, break down gluten in Celiac Disease patients, and block a broad range of flu strains. The Cyrus founders gained experience in using and developing Rosetta at David Baker’s lab. While trying to help others who struggled to learn how to use these powerful tools, they realized that a new organization was needed to bring Rosetta to the thousands of scientists and companies who need it.
Thus Cyrus was born. We sought a name to signify the fact that Cyrus software carries out tasks that were historically thought to be impossible. Cyrus Levinthal’s paradox pointed out that protein structure prediction appears to be an impossible problem to compute – Cyrus offerings shows a way out of the paradox, allowing our customers to do the impossible.