WALTHAM, MA–Vizgen Inc. has launched Velocity Lab, a centralized research facility designed to generate large-scale spatial biology data for artificial intelligence models, drug discovery and the study of complex diseases.
The Waltham biotechnology company, which develops spatial multi-omics technologies, said the new facility will combine its MERSCOPE platform with advanced tissue imaging and molecular analysis capabilities to help researchers study how cells interact within their natural environments.
Velocity Lab is currently available to research partners and is expected to expand its capacity to support transcriptome-scale spatial profiling of hundreds of millions of cells per week by 2027.
The initiative is designed to address a major limitation in AI-driven biological research: the availability of detailed molecular data that captures how cells function and interact within intact tissues.
Unlike conventional approaches that analyze individual cells or thin tissue sections, spatial biology technologies preserve information about the location and relationships of cells, providing additional context for understanding disease mechanisms and identifying potential therapeutic targets.
Vizgen said Velocity Lab introduces two capabilities intended to improve the depth and scale of spatial biology research.
The first, Volumetric Tissue Mapping, enables researchers to analyze thicker tissue samples and capture three-dimensional cellular relationships that may be missed using conventional thin-section imaging.
The technology can image tissue samples up to 100 micrometers thick, compared with approximately 10 micrometers for standard sections. According to Vizgen, the approach can capture about four times as many neighboring cells per cell, providing a more comprehensive view of tissue architecture and disease environments.
The second capability, MERSCOPE CoMap, allows researchers to measure RNA and multiple proteins within the same tissue section.
By combining these molecular measurements, scientists can better understand the relationship between a cell’s genetic activity and its functional state. The technology is intended to support drug target validation, studies of drug mechanisms, safety assessments and evaluations of treatment responses.
CoMap incorporates spatial proteomics expertise that Vizgen acquired through its 2024 acquisition of Ultivue.
The company is also developing capabilities for spatially resolved functional genomics, which would allow researchers to study how changes in gene activity affect cellular behavior while preserving the surrounding tissue environment.
Early-access collaborations will use pooled experimental perturbations to investigate disease mechanisms and identify potential drug targets.
“Foundation models of biology are limited by the kind of data they are trained on, not only the amount. Cells act on one another, and you cannot learn those interactions strictly from cells measured out of their system context. Velocity Lab generates, with partners, what’s scarce, and it does so at scale: cells characterized in intact volumetric tissue, under defined perturbation, by protein as well as transcript,” said Rob Carson, President and CEO of Vizgen.
Vizgen said initial research collaborations are already underway, including a project with a multinational biopharmaceutical company using Volumetric Tissue Mapping for neuroscience drug discovery.
Another collaboration involves the Allen Institute, an independent nonprofit research organization, which is using MERSCOPE CoMap for advanced molecular profiling and the development of reference atlases of human tissue.
“Measuring protein and RNA together on the same section lets us connect a cell’s molecular identity to its functional state, a critical layer as we build reference atlases of human tissue. Generating this data through Velocity Lab gave us the quality and consistency we need, at a scale that keeps our atlasing work moving,” said Jennie Close, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at the Allen Institute.
Vizgen said the new facility is intended to support the growing demand for spatially detailed biological datasets used in AI model development, disease research and pharmaceutical discovery.
The company is accepting additional research collaborations as capacity expands.
Researchers can also order the MERSCOPE Ultra Z Installation Package to add Volumetric Tissue Mapping capabilities to existing MERSCOPE Ultra systems.
The launch reflects growing interest in combining spatial biology technologies with artificial intelligence to improve understanding of disease and accelerate the identification and development of new treatments.
