Cortex District Company Varro Life Sciences Featured in CIC Blog

What if detecting infectious disease were as simple as taking a single breath?

Varro Life Sciences is working to make this dream a reality. Led by co-founder and CEO Tom Cirrito, Varro is developing breakthrough tools that combine advances in nanobody science with rapid-response biosensors. The result is a set of technologies that can detect pathogens in real time, helping protect lives, communities, and economies from disruption.

Varro’s biosensor can deliver a diagnostic result in just 60 seconds from a single breath, while its air bio detector continuously monitors environments for the presence of pathogens. Together, these technologies bring detection into everyday spaces where early insight can have an immediate impact. This shift represents a meaningful expansion of what diagnostics can be.

“It doesn’t just change what we know about diagnostics today,” Tom says. “It really expands the use of diagnostics and testing into entirely new arenas that have never been used before.”

As part of a new wave of biotech innovation, Varro made a deliberate decision to build and scale in St. Louis, selecting CIC St. Louis in the Cortex Innovation District as the home for its custom outfitted shared lab environment.