Waltham, Mass. — Vizgen, Inc., a spatial multiomics company and developer of the MERSCOPE Ultra Platform, said it will debut a 3D Volumetric Tissue Mapping dataset in neurodegenerative brain tissue at the Human Cell Atlas General Meeting, scheduled for June 16-18 in Boston.
The dataset uses MERFISH 2.0 chemistry on the MERSCOPE Ultra Platform. Vizgen said it also plans to launch Volumetric Tissue Mapping services and a new Cell Atlasing Hub, a central resource for the cell atlasing community that will include public datasets, case studies and expert consultation.
The company said Volumetric Tissue Mapping is designed to help researchers move beyond thin tissue sections by capturing three-dimensional cellular context, tissue architecture and disease microenvironments.
Vizgen plans to showcase volumetric MERFISH datasets in mouse brain and human neurodegenerative brain tissue. The human brain tissue dataset will be paired with amyloid beta, a protein marker associated with Alzheimer’s disease, to demonstrate multi-omic readout in a disease setting. The company said work to extend the approach into human cancer tissue is underway.
“No biological tissue is two-dimensional. Measuring a thin tissue slice only gives a glimpse of the way cells are arranged and interacting within the tissue,” said George Emanuel, PhD, Co-founder & VP of Instruments at Vizgen. “We’re building Volumetric Tissue Mapping on MERSCOPE Ultra to give researchers a more efficient way to measure native biology. We’re excited to partner with research groups to generate volumetric spatial transcriptomics data through data generation services now and enabling measurements in their own labs on MERSCOPE Ultra soon. This will expedite cell atlasing, biological understanding, and drug development.”
Vizgen said its MERFISH 2.0 chemistry can generate volumetric datasets that resolve cell neighborhoods, tissue architecture, rare cell populations and disease pathology in the same experiment, while maintaining sensitivity and specificity.
Through Vizgen Lab Services, the company is offering project-based access to Volumetric Tissue Mapping, allowing researchers to generate MERFISH data without additional overhead. The company said the approach combines imaging depth, rare cell detection, panel flexibility, multi-omic readouts and robust segmentation to support the transition from thin-section analysis to volumetric data from thick tissue.
