Software-enabled biotechnology company Cyrus Biotechnology has announced the spin-out of Levitate Bio to enhance biopharma AI offerings.

The new entity will focus on providing automated, customised AI solutions for drug discovery within the biopharma sector.

In addition to focusing on drug development, Levitate Bio aims to leverage the Cyrus platform's capabilities to serve a broader market, including applications in synthetic biology, manufacturing and research.

Levitate Bio will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Rosetta Commons Foundation (RCF), a non-profit organisation created by the Rosetta Commons collaborative.

The US University of Washington is responsible for managing the licensing of the Rosetta biomolecular modelling suite, which has been licensed to more than 60,000 non-commercial users and 200 commercial entities.

Rosetta has recently been made open-source for non-commercial use.

The establishment of Levitate Bio follows a software industry trend where a for-profit services/software business is paired with a non-profit to advance core technology for the benefit of the entire industry.

Both Cyrus and Levitate Bio have enhanced software developed by Rosetta Commons labs for automated use.

Cyrus has utilised the Levitate platform to develop multiple novel investigational new drug (IND)-stage biologics, and to discover new intellectual property in collaboration with 30 pharma companies.

The platform was also used as the foundation of the GUI software Cyrus Bench, which has been sold to 120 pharmaceutical companies across North America, the European Union, Asia and other regions.

Levitate Bio CEO Sam DeLuca stated: “The field of algorithmically driven protein optimisation and design is moving so rapidly right now, we have found that a static set of software products is not able to fit the dynamic needs of the pharma industry, which is why Levitate will be offering a full stack of software and services customised for each customer’s needs.”