MERFISH Platform Illuminates Biology at the Nanoscale to Advance Discovery and Translational Research in Neuroscience, Immuno-Oncology, Infectious Disease/COVID-19
Vizgen, the company developing the next generation of single-cell, spatial genomics profiling tools, announced the launch of an Early Release Program for its novel MERFISH imaging platform. The program provides scientific investigators an opportunity to gain access to the patented technology ahead of its commercial launch, to accelerate their research in an academic lab or R&D pipeline.
As infectious disease researchers continue to work on unraveling the many remaining mysteries of COVID-19, MERFISH serves as a powerful instrument in their toolbox for answering critical questions including what types of cells does SARS-CoV-2 infect, how are tissues damaged, and how does the body respond to the novel coronavirus.
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“Vizgen’s MERFISH technology undoubtedly will emerge as the next-gen platform for high-resolution spatial biology,” said Dr. David R. Walt, Cofounder of Vizgen; Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Core Faculty, Wyss Institute for Bioinspired Engineering, Harvard University; HHMI Professor. “It enables comprehensive transcriptomics combined with proteomics and has both whole tissue and subcellular resolution. It checks all the boxes.”
The technology was developed in the laboratory of Dr. Xiaowei Zhuang, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and David B. Arnold Professor of Science at Harvard University, and a 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Laureate. MERFISH is a quantitative, genome-scale multiplexed imaging technology for identifying nucleic acids in their native cellular and tissue environment. The technology leverages combinatorial labeling, sequential imaging, and error-tolerant barcoding schemes, to rapidly produce massively multiplexed and accurate measurements of RNA expression.
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Neuroscientists are using MERFISH to discover and map novel cell types and states, developing detailed molecular, spatial, and functional cell atlases that reveal how complex biological tissues are constructed. MERFISH is used as a tool for several Human Cell Atlas projects and was named a “Technology to Watch in 2018” by Nature for mapping the transcriptome.
Investigators in the field of immuno-oncology utlize the technology to profile the spatial distribution of different immune cell types, such as T cells, and their activation states across the tumor and tumor microenvironment, which provides critical insight into the stage of disease progression, prognosis, and response to different drug therapies.
“Vizgen is working in collaboration with world-renowned research facilities who are at the forefront of advancing scientific discovery to promote human health and treat and cure disease,” said George Emanuel, PhD, Founding Scientist, Vizgen. “We are thrilled to offer this early release program, empowering investigators to answer the wide range of biological questions addressed by MERFISH.”
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