Vizgen

High multiplexing, high resolution in situ platform to combine single-cell and spatial genomics

MERFISH technology is built upon an RNA imaging-based technique called single molecule FISH. To perform smFISH, fluorescently tagged oligo probes label RNA transcripts of interest, and by directly counting the number of fluorescent RNA targets, you can determine each gene’s expression profile. MERFISH expands on single molecule FISH by adding combinatorial labeling, sequential rounds of imaging and error robust barcoding to greatly increase the multiplexing capacity and enable spatially resolved, single-cell gene expression profiling.

MERFISH implements a novel combinatorial barcoding scheme where each targeted gene in the custom designed panel is assigned a unique binary barcode. Sequential rounds of imaging are used to generate the barcode, a sequence of zeros and ones. This combinatorial barcoding scheme dramatically increases multiplexing capacity.

Additionally, this barcoding system is further designed with error robustness. If there is a readout error, the system can assign the readout to the nearest correct barcode. This is what makes MERSCOPE’s results accurate and consistent.

With MERFISH spatial profiling technology you can spatially localize transcripts with nanometer-scale resolution, mapping gene expression across whole tissues and discovering the complex arrangement of cell types and states.