Nautilus Biotechnology Develops Device to Enable Protein Identification

Nautilus Biotechnology, founded in 2016 by Seattle’s Sujal Patel and the San Francisco Bay Area’s Parag Mallick, is developing a device they say will identify and count 95% of the different types of proteins in a biological sample. The company also plans to measure key machinery inside cells with a level of detail that has never been done before.

The company said that the already existing device could measure up to 8% of the different types of proteins in blood samples. Nautilus Biotechnology says such protein measurements are unique to every person and change throughout people’s lives. This will not only help doctors identify more specific forms of disease but also help pharmaceutical companies find more precise drugs with fewer side effects.

Patel also said that things would transform the healthcare care landscape. Adding these new capabilities will bring about a new paradigm for medicine in the coming decades. The company went public in June through a merger with Arya Sciences, an existing public company, in the process of gaining access to $345 million in additional funding. Today, the company has more than 100 employees split between Seattle and the Bay Area and has a market capitalization of around $1 billion.

Nautilus Biotechnology is one of many fast-growing companies in Washington’s life sciences sector. It’s an arena that has seen nearly $4 billion in transactions in the first half of 2021, ranging from private financings to acquisitions and initial public offerings. Life science companies have dominated the state’s IPOs in the first half of 2021. The company was backed by Jeff Bezos’ venture capital firm Bezos Expeditions, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, and Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group.