NanoString Technologies

Last updated
NanoString Technologies, Inc
Company type Public
OTC Pink: NSTGQ
Nasdaq: NSTG
Industry Biotechnology
Founded2003 [1]
FoundersKrassen Dimitrov, Amber Ratcliffe, Dwayne Dunaway
Headquarters South Lake Union, ,
Key people
Brad Gray, CEO
ProductsnCounter® Analysis System, GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler, CosMx ™ Spatial Molecular Imager, AtoMx ™ Spatial Informatics Portal
BrandsnCounter®, GeoMx® DSP
Revenue$144.0 million [2]  (2021)
-$80.1 million [2]  (2021)
Total equity $479.5 million [2]  (2021)
Number of employees
766 [3]  (2021)
Website nanostring.com

NanoString Technologies, Inc. was a biotechnology company focused on discovery and translational research. [1]

Contents

NanoString's products include the nCounter Gene Expression System, the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler, the CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager, and the AtoMx Spatial Informatics Platform. These four systems enable scientists to envision molecular interactions in three dimensions and see the multiomic expression of genes and proteins in the context of tissue structure. NanoString products are based on a novel digital molecular barcoding technology invented at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle under the direction of Dr. Leroy Hood.

History

The original patent forming the basis for the nCounter Analysis System was invented and licensed by The Institute for Systems Biology.[ citation needed ] The business plan was written by Amber Ratcliffe and Aaron Coe and won seed funding in multiple business plan competitions. [4] NanoString was spun out of The Institute for Systems Biology and founded as a separate company in 2003 by Krassen Dimitrov, Amber Ratcliffe, and Dwayne Dunaway. [5]

In 2008, NanoString launched the nCounter Analysis System and began international sales operations with its first multiplexed assays for gene expression analysis.[ citation needed ]

In 2009, Perry Fell, who had been CEO since 2004, left the company abruptly without official explanation. [6] Between 2009 and 2010, the company operated with an acting CEO, Wayne Burns. [7] Brad Gray, a former Genzyme executive, was hired as president and CEO in 2010. [7]

As of June 2010, the company was not yet profitable. [7] In an interview, Gray suggested that NanoString would begin to develop clinical diagnostics. [7] As of July 2012, NanoString began indicating a move towards becoming a public company by hiring several senior staff with public company experience. [8]

In 2013, the company's IPO raised funding to expand NanoString sales and marketing. [1] NanoString’s first spatial platform, the GeoMx DSP, was launched in 2019, enabling highly multiplexed spatial profiling of RNA and protein targets in various sample types, including FFPE tissue sections. The unique combination of high-plex and high-throughput spatial profiling allows researchers to rapidly and quantitatively assess the biological implications of heterogeneity within tissues and has resulted in over 150 peer-reviewed publications as of September 2022.

On February 4, 2024, NanoString Technologies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after laying off 20% of its workforce in October 2023. The company began exploring options to support its restructuring, including a potential sale of itself. [9]

On April 19, 2024, the sale of NanoString Technologies to the Bruker Corporation was approved and later that month Bruker announced a definitive acquisition agreement had been entered between the companies. Bruker acquired the assets and rights associated with NanoString's business for $392.6 million in cash. [10]

Technology & Products

NanoString's research tools are based on the nCounter Analysis System, which is a modification of the DNA microarray technology. [11] The nCounter system allows for the simultaneous profiling of hundreds of genes, proteins, miRNAs, or copy number variations with high sensitivity and precision, using molecular barcodes and microscopic imaging in a hybridization reaction. [12]

To enable spatial transcriptomics and proteomics from one FFPE slide, NanoString introduced the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler in 2019. The GeoMx DSP combines whole tissue imaging with gene expression and protein data for single cell resolution in a spatial context. [13]

NanoString's product pipeline includes the development of the CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager, a single-cell imaging platform that is FFPE-compatible and powered by spatial multiomics. It allows researchers to map single cells in their native environments to extract deep biological insights and novel discoveries from one experiment.

In addition, NanoString has developed the AtoMx Spatial Informatics Platform, a cloud-based informatics solution with advanced analytics and global collaboration capabilities, which is expected to launch in 2022. [14] The AtoMx platform provides a comprehensive, integrated ecosystem for spatial biology insights, enabling global data sharing and collaboration.

Overall, NanoString's continued investment in innovation has led to the development of a range of advanced research tools that offer high sensitivity, precision, and spatial resolution, allowing researchers to gain deep insights into biological systems.

Related Research Articles

Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Kauffman</span> American medical doctor & academic

Stuart Alan Kauffman is an American medical doctor, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth. He was a professor at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Calgary. He is currently emeritus professor of biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and affiliate faculty at the Institute for Systems Biology. He has a number of awards including a MacArthur Fellowship and a Wiener Medal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological database</span>

Biological databases are libraries of biological sciences, collected from scientific experiments, published literature, high-throughput experiment technology, and computational analysis. They contain information from research areas including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microarray gene expression, and phylogenetics. Information contained in biological databases includes gene function, structure, localization, clinical effects of mutations as well as similarities of biological sequences and structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omics</span> Suffix in biology

The branches of science known informally as omics are various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix -omics, such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics. Omics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of pools of biological molecules that translate into the structure, function, and dynamics of an organism or organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute for Systems Biology</span> American non-profit research institute

Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is a non-profit research institution located in Seattle, Washington, United States. ISB concentrates on systems biology, the study of relationships and interactions between various parts of biological systems, and advocates an interdisciplinary approach to biological research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spatiotemporal gene expression</span> Activation of genes

Spatiotemporal gene expression is the activation of genes within specific tissues of an organism at specific times during development. Gene activation patterns vary widely in complexity. Some are straightforward and static, such as the pattern of tubulin, which is expressed in all cells at all times in life. Some, on the other hand, are extraordinarily intricate and difficult to predict and model, with expression fluctuating wildly from minute to minute or from cell to cell. Spatiotemporal variation plays a key role in generating the diversity of cell types found in developed organisms; since the identity of a cell is specified by the collection of genes actively expressed within that cell, if gene expression was uniform spatially and temporally, there could be at most one kind of cell.

Articles related specifically to biomedical engineering include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie</span>

VIB is a research institute located in Flanders, Belgium. It was founded by the Flemish government in 1995, and became a full-fledged institute on 1 January 1996. The main objective of VIB is to strengthen the excellence of Flemish life sciences research and to turn the results into new economic growth. VIB spends almost 80% of its budget on research activities, while almost 12% is spent on technology transfer activities and stimulating the creation of new businesses, in addition VIB spends approximately 2% on socio-economic activities. VIB is member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading life sciences research centres in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruker</span> American scientific instrument manufacturer

Bruker Corporation is an American manufacturer of scientific instruments for molecular and materials research, as well as for industrial and applied analysis. It is headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, and is the publicly traded parent company of Bruker Scientific Instruments and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST) divisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Myers</span> American scientist

Eugene Wimberly "Gene" Myers, Jr. is an American computer scientist and bioinformatician, who is best known for contributing to the early development of the NCBI's BLAST tool for sequence analysis.

Xenbase is a Model Organism Database (MOD), providing informatics resources, as well as genomic and biological data on Xenopus frogs. Xenbase has been available since 1999, and covers both X. laevis and X. tropicalis Xenopus varieties. As of 2013 all of its services are running on virtual machines in a private cloud environment, making it one of the first MODs to do so. Other than hosting genomics data and tools, Xenbase supports the Xenopus research community though profiles for researchers and laboratories, and job and events postings.

Preclinical imaging is the visualization of living animals for research purposes, such as drug development. Imaging modalities have long been crucial to the researcher in observing changes, either at the organ, tissue, cell, or molecular level, in animals responding to physiological or environmental changes. Imaging modalities that are non-invasive and in vivo have become especially important to study animal models longitudinally. Broadly speaking, these imaging systems can be categorized into primarily morphological/anatomical and primarily molecular imaging techniques. Techniques such as high-frequency micro-ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are usually used for anatomical imaging, while optical imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are usually used for molecular visualizations.

Translational bioinformatics (TBI) is a field that emerged in the 2010s to study health informatics, focused on the convergence of molecular bioinformatics, biostatistics, statistical genetics and clinical informatics. Its focus is on applying informatics methodology to the increasing amount of biomedical and genomic data to formulate knowledge and medical tools, which can be utilized by scientists, clinicians, and patients. Furthermore, it involves applying biomedical research to improve human health through the use of computer-based information system. TBI employs data mining and analyzing biomedical informatics in order to generate clinical knowledge for application. Clinical knowledge includes finding similarities in patient populations, interpreting biological information to suggest therapy treatments and predict health outcomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiomics</span> Biological analysis approach

Multiomics, multi-omics, integrative omics, "panomics" or "pan-omics" is a biological analysis approach in which the data sets are multiple "omes", such as the genome, proteome, transcriptome, epigenome, metabolome, and microbiome ; in other words, the use of multiple omics technologies to study life in a concerted way. By combining these "omes", scientists can analyze complex biological big data to find novel associations between biological entities, pinpoint relevant biomarkers and build elaborate markers of disease and physiology. In doing so, multiomics integrates diverse omics data to find a coherently matching geno-pheno-envirotype relationship or association. The OmicTools service lists more than 99 softwares related to multiomic data analysis, as well as more than 99 databases on the topic.

Centre for Genomic Regulation

The Centre for Genomic Regulation is a biomedical and genomics research centre based in Barcelona. Most of its facilities and laboratories are located in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, in front of Somorrostro beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Lustig</span>

Kevin Donald Lustig is an American scientist and entrepreneur and founder of three life science companies: the pharmaceutical company Kalypsys in 2001; the online research marketplace Scientist.com in 2007; and the non-profit lab incubator Bio, Tech and Beyond in 2013.

Akhilesh Kumar Tyagi is an Indian plant biologist and the former director of National Institute of Plant Genome Research. Known for his studies on plant genomics and biotechnology, Tyagi is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India as well as The World Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intellia Therapeutics</span> American biotechnology company

Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. is an American clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel, potentially curative therapeutics leveraging CRISPR-based technologies. The company's in vivo programs use intravenously administered CRISPR as the therapy, in which the company's proprietary delivery technology enables highly precise editing of disease-causing genes directly within specific target tissues. Intellia's ex vivo programs use CRISPR to create the therapy by using engineered human cells to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Spatial transcriptomics is a method for assigning cell types to their locations in the histological sections. It comprises an important part of spatial biology. Recent work demonstrated that the subcellular localization of mRNA molecules, for example, in the nucleus can also be studied.

Laura Attardi is the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor of the school of medicine, and professor of radiation oncology and genetics at Stanford University where she leads the Attardi Laboratory. Attardi studies the tumor suppressor protein p53 and the gene that encodes it, TP53, to better understand mechanisms for preventing cancer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Annie Zak (20 March 2015). "NanoString pulls in 52% more sales". Puget Sound Business Journal . Vol. 35, no. 48. Seattle: American City Business Journals. p. 39. ISSN   8750-7757. LCCN   99107105. OCLC   11683053.
  2. 1 2 3 "NanoString Technologies Releases Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Operating Results and Provides 2022 Financial Outlook" (Press release). 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  3. "NanoString Technologies Number of Employees 2011-2022". Macrotrends. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  4. "UW startup wins second business plan competition". Bizjournals.com. 2003-05-27. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  5. "biotechnologie.de". biotechnologie.de. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  6. "NanoString CEO Perry Fell Departs". Xconomy. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "NanoString Hires Genzyme Vet as CEO to Lead Foray Into Molecular Diagnostics". Xconomy. 2010-06-29. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  8. "NanoString Makes IPO Prep Move, Adds Finance Vet to Board". Xconomy. 2012-07-18. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  9. "NanoString Takes Steps to Restructure Its Business and Protect Its Mission to Map the Universe of Biology". Business Wire. February 4, 2024. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  10. Ward, Justin (April 22, 2024). "Bruker to Acquire the NanoString Business in an Asset Deal". Bruker.com. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  11. USapplication 2017081713,Kim, Dae; Ross, Paul Martin& Meredith, Gavinet al.,"Multivalent probes having single nucleotide resolution",published 2017-03-23, assigned to Nanostring Technologies Inc., since abandoned.
  12. Geiss, Gary K; Bumgarner, Roger E; Birditt, Brian; Dahl, Timothy; Dowidar, Naeem; Dunaway, Dwayne L; Fell, H Perry; Ferree, Sean; George, Renee D; Grogan, Tammy; James, Jeffrey J; Maysuria, Malini; Mitton, Jeffrey D; Oliveri, Paola; Osborn, Jennifer L; Peng, Tao; Ratcliffe, Amber L; Webster, Philippa J; Davidson, Eric H; Hood, Leroy; Dimitrov, Krassen (2008). "Direct multiplexed measurement of gene expression with color-coded probe pairs" (PDF). Nature Biotechnology. 26 (3): 317–25. doi:10.1038/nbt1385. PMID   18278033. S2CID   9308000.
  13. "NanoString Announces Commercial Launch of GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler at the 2019 American Association of Cancer Research Conference" (Press release). 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  14. "NanoString Unveils AtoMx Spatial Informatics Portal at the 2022 Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) General Meeting" (Press release). 2022-06-06. Retrieved 2022-10-10.