Nautilus Biotechnology Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

26 Feb 2026, 22:48 by Mitch Edgeman · The Markets Daily

Nautilus Biotechnology (NASDAQ:NAUT) used its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call to highlight recent steps toward commercialization of its proteomics platform, alongside continued cost reductions and updated expectations for 2026 spending and revenue. Management said 2025 closed with “tangible progress” across product development, external collaborations, and early customer engagement, including the public debut of its Voyager instrument and an early access program launched ahead of schedule.

Voyager debut and early access launch

Co-founder and CEO Sujal Patel said Nautilus’ proprietary “Iterative Mapping” methodology is designed to analyze single, intact protein molecules and generate “highly reproducible digital protein counts,” delivered through an integrated platform of instrumentation, consumables, and software.

A key Q4 milestone was the company’s presence at the U.S. Human Proteome Organization conference (US HUPO) in St. Louis, where Nautilus publicly unveiled the Nautilus Voyager instrument. Patel said the response from researchers and potential customers was “highly positive,” and that the company designed Voyager to look and feel distinct while remaining approachable in lab settings.

Nautilus also launched its Iterative Mapping Early Access Program in January, earlier than previously communicated. Patel characterized the program as a transition point from development to “active customer engagement,” allowing partners to submit samples, receive data, and provide feedback. Management emphasized the early access initiative is not intended to drive near-term revenue, but rather to support biological discovery, publications, and grant applications, while ensuring workflows meet customer needs.

Collaborations generate tau-focused data and validation

Co-founder and Chief Scientist Parag Mallick said Nautilus is increasingly moving “beyond demonstrating that the technology works” toward applying it to generate biological insights that are difficult to obtain with existing proteomics methods.

During the quarter, Nautilus completed work with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, which Mallick said culminated in presentations of “novel tau biology” at World HUPO and US HUPO, with partners preparing findings for publication.

Mallick also highlighted work with the Allen Institute for Brain Science analyzing human brain samples across brain regions, genetic backgrounds, and disease severities. He said Nautilus believes this represents the “most comprehensive and quantitative tau proteoform landscape study to date,” and that the team is observing differences in tau proteoform patterns across disease severity and brain regions that are not detectable using conventional approaches.

In the Q&A, Mallick pointed to a US HUPO presentation by collaborator Birgit Schilling that included data connecting APOE genotypes to potential changes in tau phosphorylation. He called the findings early but said the ability to see proteoform-level effects could help clarify downstream consequences of genetic risk and protection.

Assay development: tau readiness, broad-scale updates, and expansion

On product development, Mallick said Nautilus advanced both its broad-scale assay and its proteoform assay portfolio. For the broad-scale assay, he said the company is now routinely using an updated assay configuration designed to align with an expanding probe library and improve performance. He added Nautilus ran its “largest scale experiments to date,” demonstrating decoding of proteins from increasingly complex mixtures, including cell lysates. The company is also working on fabrication and performance characteristics of a new flow cell configuration, including increased on-target binding as an indicator it can support an expanded affinity reagent library.

For proteoform assays, Mallick said the tau proteoform assay remains the first early access offering. He said verification and validation work is largely complete and that the assay is meeting requirements for accuracy, dynamic range, reproducibility, and stability. The company expects to begin processing samples through the early access program by the end of Q1.

Nautilus also initiated an expansion pipeline beyond tau. Patel and Mallick discussed a collaboration announced in late January with Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) focused on alpha-synuclein proteoforms in Parkinson’s disease. The MJFF-funded project totals $1.6 million, with $1.2 million expected to go to Nautilus, and will run for about 18 months. Mallick said the work includes developing a pilot assay focused on key post-translational modifications, optimizing enrichment and sample prep workflows, and applying the technology to human brain and biofluid samples.

Beyond neuroscience, Mallick said the company is evaluating oncology-focused candidate proteins and is targeting an oncology proteoform assay entering early access in the second half of 2026.

Financial results: expense reductions, cash position, and 2026 outlook

Chief Financial Officer Anna Mowry said Nautilus reduced spending in Q4 and across 2025 while maintaining progress on key priorities. Total operating expenses were $15.4 million in Q4 2025, down 23% year over year. Full-year 2025 operating expenses were $66.8 million, down 18% year over year.

R&D expense: $41.1 million in 2025 vs. $50.5 million in 2024 (down 19%), driven by lower lab supplies and equipment spending, lower salary and benefit costs following a Q1 2025 reduction in force, and lower stock-based compensation.
G&A expense: $25.7 million in 2025 vs. $31.0 million in 2024 (down 17%), reflecting lower stock-based compensation and reduced professional services costs.

Nautilus ended Q4 with $156.1 million in cash equivalents and investments. Cash burn was $50.2 million in 2025, down from $57.8 million in 2024. Looking ahead, Mowry said operating expenses are expected to increase in 2026 as the company invests in platform development, expands early access, and advances commercial readiness. The company anticipates operating expense growth of about 15% to 20% in 2026 and full-year cash burn of $65 million to $70 million, while maintaining an expected cash runway through 2027.

On revenue, Mowry said Nautilus expects modest services revenue later in 2026, but that the primary revenue ramp should begin in 2027 once the company starts shipping instruments. In the Q&A, she said 2026 revenue is expected primarily from two sources: recognition of a portion of the MJFF grant revenue and a “handful” of early access customers converting to revenue. She indicated a target “closer to, say, half a million dollars for 2026,” adding that the instrument-related ramp is expected in 2027. The company did not provide new pricing details for Voyager, saying there were no changes from prior discussions.

Commercial timeline and 2026 milestones

Patel described 2026 as a “pivotal execution year.” The company plans to progress early access users into tau services projects, expand early access to include a second proteoform assay focused on an oncology target, and introduce broad-scale capabilities into early access later in the year.

Patel also said Nautilus expects to place Voyager instruments externally through beta deployments ahead of commercialization. The company expects to initiate its commercial launch in late 2026 by opening the Voyager platform for pre-orders, with instrument installations beginning in early 2027. At launch, management expects general availability to include Voyager, the tau proteoform assay, and a second proteoform assay, with broad-scale capabilities targeted for general availability in the first half of 2027.

In the Q&A, Patel said Nautilus currently has “absolutely 0 sales capacity,” noting there is not a single salesperson on staff today. He said the company is beginning a targeted build of sales capacity starting this quarter, describing it as a limited, focused approach rather than a large commercial expansion.

About Nautilus Biotechnology (NASDAQ:NAUT)

Nautilus Biotechnology is a life sciences company developing a next-generation proteomics platform that aims to provide high-resolution, single-molecule protein analysis. Its core technology combines proprietary microfluidics, advanced optics and custom reagents to capture and identify thousands of proteins simultaneously, offering researchers detailed insights into cellular processes and disease biology. The company’s platform is designed to improve sensitivity, reproducibility and throughput compared with traditional mass spectrometry approaches.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Nautilus Biotechnology serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and research organizations seeking to accelerate drug discovery and biomarker research.