NanoString, Illumina Accelerator and Doloromics Announce GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiling Collaboration to Develop Novel Pain Therapeutics

NanoString Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSTG), a leading provider of life science tools for discovery and translational research, today announced the company has awarded a Technology Access Program grant with Illumina Accelerator startup, Doloromics, focused on gaining a deeper understanding of chronic pain diseases by spatially characterizing the dorsal root ganglion (DRG). NanoString will partner with at least one startup from each global Illumina Accelerator funding cycle for a GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) Technology Access Program grant.

The founders of Doloromics have significant experience in studying chronic pain in human peripheral nerves and have published extensively on the inadequacy of current mouse systems as well as biological differences in pain transmission and receptor expression that exist between men and women. Spatial profiling of the DRG from patient tissues with the Whole Transcriptome Atlas may be highly informative as it would allow a thorough understanding of the transcriptional expression within the DRG and could support discovery and validation of new targets. GeoMx DSP is uniquely positioned to advance this research because it is designed to read-out on Illumina sequencers, leveraging state-of-the-art next generation sequencing and the novel biological insights provided by innovative spatial profiling technology.

“This fantastic partnership will enable selected Illumina Accelerator startups to generate uniquely rich multi-omics datasets, which will combine spatial transcriptomics information using NanoString technology and dozens of terabases of high-quality Illumina sequencing data,” said Amanda Cashin, co-founder and Global Head of Illumina for Startups.

“We’re excited to collaborate with Doloromics and Illumina Accelerator to bring high-resolution spatial biology to the development of a new generation of pain therapeutics,” said Brad Gray, president and chief executive officer of NanoString. “Spatial biology has become a powerful tool for discovering and validating biomarkers that may result in innovative new approaches to significant unmet medical needs.”

“This collaboration with NanoString and Illumina Accelerator gives us a unique opportunity to gain deeper insight into the transcriptomes of human pain sensing neurons, called nociceptors, which will be a key component of the Doloromics pain drug and biomarker discovery platform,” said Candler Paige, chief executive officer of Doloromics. “We are excited to dramatically expand our spatially-driven insight into fundamental pain mechanisms.”

To learn more about NanoString’s GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler, please visit https://www.nanostring.com/products/geomx-digital-spatial-profiler/geomx-dsp.

About NanoString Technologies, Inc.

NanoString Technologies is a leading provider of life science tools for discovery and translational research. The company’s nCounter® Analysis System is used in life sciences research and has been cited in more than 4,000 peer-reviewed publications. The nCounter Analysis System offers a cost-effective way to easily profile the expression of hundreds of genes, proteins, miRNAs, or copy number variations, simultaneously with high sensitivity and precision, facilitating a wide variety of basic research and translational medicine applications, including biomarker discovery and validation. The company’s GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler enables highly-multiplexed spatial profiling of RNA and protein targets in a variety of sample types, including FFPE tissue sections.

For more information, please visit www.nanostring.com.

About Doloromics Inc.

Doloromics is a spin-out company from the University of Texas at Dallas. Founded in 2020 by four neuroscience researchers, the goal of Doloromics is to improve chronic pain treatments. To achieve this goal, Doloromics has two main approaches. The first is to analyze next-generation sequencing datasets using a proprietary algorithm to identify novel drug-targets, and the second is to determine biomarkers in chronic pain patients to develop individualized treatment options.

For more information, please visit www.doloromics.com.

NanoString, NanoString Technologies, the NanoString logo, GeoMx, and nCounter are trademarks or registered trademarks of NanoString Technologies, Inc. in various jurisdictions.

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