After doubling its workforce during the pandemic, Adaptive Biotechnologies finally has room to grow.
The company on Tuesday will cut the ribbon on its new 100,086 square-foot headquarters in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, with Gov. Jay Inslee the keynote speaker.
The building, at the site of a former gym and smoothie shop near Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, approximately doubles the footprint of the company, which also has a presence in San Francisco and New York. The 782-employee company will also retain its nearby existing 66,000 square-foot space.
Adaptive was spun out of Fred Hutch in 2009 with technology combining computational and laboratory methods to assess the immune response. The company joined the public markets in June 2019, raising $300 million, foreshadowing a string of public debuts for Washington biotech companies and a focused involvement of the region in COVID-19 research.
Adaptive now markets kits that test for COVID-19, blood cancer and more, and its multiple drug company partnerships include COVID-19 vaccine and cancer cell therapy research projects.
Co-founders and brothers Chad and Harlan Robins have complementary expertise. Harlan, former head of the the computational biology program at Fred Hutch, serves as chief scientific officer. Chad, a former executive at real estate, investment banking, private equity, and medical technology companies, is CEO. (When they have disputes, the pair call on their mother to mediate.)
