The life sciences company Varro has picked St. Louis as where it wants to grow as it looks to develop commercially available medical devices that can rapidly detect pathogens easily spread through the air such as the flu, COVID and RSV.
Varro鈥檚 new lab space in one of the Cortex Innovation District buildings is still in the early stages of being built. It鈥檚 mostly empty lab benches and wire racks for now, but in a matter of weeks, it will house the company鈥檚 space for research and development space and manufacturing clean room.
鈥淥ur manufacturing is going to look a little different than most biotech companies,鈥� said Varro CEO Tom Cirrito. 鈥淚t actually looks like a semiconductor facility because our biosensor is essentially a semiconductor.鈥�
Varro looks to bring forthcoming diagnostic devices to the market built around a 鈥渕icro immuno electrode鈥� that Cirrito described as the company鈥檚 鈥渟ecret sauce.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially a bridge between a semiconductor and the biological world,鈥� Cirrito said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a platform technology, which means there鈥檚 many different applications that you could develop.鈥�
Initially, the company is looking to develop two devices, he said. One will be able to detect the presence of pathogens from a single breath in about a minute with the same sensitivity as a .
鈥淚t鈥檚 better, faster, cheaper, easier to use,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll of the things you want.鈥�
The other device uses the same technology but would sit in a room and continuously sample the air around it to detect if an infectious person entered and was releasing particles into the air, Cirrito explained.
鈥淚f somebody would enter a standard size room, a 20-by-25-foot conference room, say, our device could sense the presence of that sick individual faster than many, if not most of the people in that space could be infected,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 never been a device that can do this before.鈥�
It builds on published research from Washington University on the matter and is a family affair for Cirrito. His brother, John, is one of the WashU researchers behind the scientific innovation at the core of Varro, which was founded in February 2020.
鈥淚t was really just an amazing convergence of events that his technology was squarely in the space that we had committed to as a company,鈥� Cirrito saad. 鈥淥ur main functions for those first four years was to support our scientific founders and work with them to secure non-dilutive funding.鈥�
The move back to St. Louis now made sense for Cirrito, who had spent almost two decades in New York City founding other biotech companies and leading them through research, development and product deployment.
鈥淎s we were approaching a clinical trial, it became clear to me that coming back to St. Louis was the best way to move Varro forward,鈥� he said. 鈥淏e closer to the technology, the clinical study, and start to build our operations here: R&D, manufacturing.鈥�
The company is actively hiring for four positions right now and expects to have 30 employees by the end of the year, including lab personnel and some senior leadership, he said. Cirrito declined to say how much those hires would earn, but said the highly skilled positions would be 鈥減aid competitively.鈥�
The growth is partially enabled by $20 million in non-dilutive capital support from Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum.
That investment has Cirrito aiming to launch a clinical trial for a device that can detect COVID, Flu A and Flu B by the next flu and COVID season at the end of this year or early next. It鈥檚 a tight schedule to have the lab built fully built out with R&D and manufacturing capabilities, he said.
鈥淓verybody thinks, oh, you raised $20 million you know, you're sitting pretty,鈥� Cirrito said. 鈥淏ut the reality is that you raise the $20 million and then the real work begins.鈥�
Having a company like Varro decide to establish itself in the St. Louis region is exciting, said Cortex President and CEO Sam Fiorello.
鈥淭his is a company that could be built and grow anywhere,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey can go anywhere. People are courting them and want them. The fact that they鈥檙e growing here is a great testament to what we鈥檝e built.鈥�
Part of that, in Fiorello鈥檚 eyes, is the network of people he and others have deployed to support the growing company.
鈥淚t is something that St. Louis is uniquely suited to do well,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have relationships and networks and can connect [Varro] with folks who have a pipeline of talent. You don鈥檛 have to know everyone because we do.鈥�
Cirrito said he was surprised by his experience with the depth of talent available in the St. Louis region, especially since the positions his company is hiring for require complex and specialized skill sets. But of the four positions open right now, he said he has excellent candidates for all of them.
鈥淭he idea that there鈥檚 people here who are perfect for that role, this company and this technology is mind-boggling,鈥� Cirrito said. 鈥淭here are probably low single-digit people who are really good candidates on the planet. And I think that we鈥檝e found potentially some of the best possible, if not the best possible, candidates already in St. Louis.鈥�
He added that this wouldn鈥檛 have happened in other regions in the U.S. with larger biotech footprints, such as Boston or San Francisco.
That鈥檚 an important message about St. Louis from an equally important messenger, Fiorello said.
鈥淪omeone like Tom, who is coming into our community, who鈥檚 a serial entrepreneur, done this a lot, invested in companies, grown and built companies,鈥� he said. 鈥淭om brings in investors from the East Coast and West Coast. That鈥檚 new money to the region.鈥�
And fresh eyes to see the other advancements and opportunities being developed throughout the St. Louis region, Fiorello added.
鈥淚t means a hell of a lot more if it鈥檚 a West Coast investor that has no tie to St. Louis saying, 鈥楳an, you should look at St. Louis because I just made an investment, and it was incredible,鈥欌�� he said.
