Vizgen Early-Access Customers Say New Chemistry Improves Transcript Sensitivity

NEW YORK – Spatial biology firm Vizgen recently launched an updated chemistry for its spatial transcriptomics product line that promises better performance with low-quality samples.

The MERFISH (multiplexed, error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization) 2.0 chemistry offers better detection of fragmented and other lower-quality RNAs. “The impact of this is to open up a new group of sample types,” including clinical samples, said Jiang He, Vizgen cofounder and VP of R&D.

Sensitivity is up to eightfold higher than before, which means fewer cells drop out in single-cell analyses because transcript counts are higher, He said.

The new chemistry is both more “robust” and “consistent” for human formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, according to Christoph Kuppe, a researcher at Germany’s RWTH Aachen University and an early-access user of the new chemistry. “Now we get double the transcript counts and, in some samples, even more.”

Others have seen even higher gains. Mathieu Bourdenx, a researcher at University College London, for example, said the new chemistry has increased the number of transcripts he can detect by 10-fold.

In Kuppe’s lab, the initial chemistry produced high-quality data from high-quality samples but struggled to sustain that when the input quality dropped, he said. “It was a little trickier to find the right sample for the technology so that you got really high-quality data,” he said.

The product enhancements come in the wake of great change at Vizgen. The Harvard University spinout merged with Ultivue last October and settled an intense, global patent fight with 10x Genomics in February of this year.

Vizgen CEO Rob Carson declined to comment about the specifics of the settlement but said “all of that is behind us.”