This story has been updated to clarify which technology Acuity Spatial Genomics has licensed from Harvard University.
NEW YORK – Acuity Spatial Genomics, a newcomer to the spatial omics market, said on Thursday that it is launching with a majority investment from Bruker.
Acuity said it has obtained an exclusive license to Oligopaint probes developed by Harvard Medical School genetics professor Ting Wu, which underpin Oligo fluorescence in situ sequencing (OligoFISSEQ) technology, also licensed by the company. The company will further develop and commercialize these technologies to provide a "deeper understanding of 3D chromatin architecture," Acuity said in a statement, noting that the technology development was supported in part by a research collaboration between the Wu lab and Bruker.
Details of Bruker's investment were not disclosed.
Bruker Nano President Mark Munch, who helped found the company, will serve as Acuity's CEO. Huy Nguyen and Shyamtanu Chattoraj, postdocs in Wu's lab, are also joining the firm as cofounders. Wu and her husband George Church, also a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, will service on the scientific advisory board.
Acuity Spatial Genomics' OligoFISSEQ and OligoFISSEQ HD technologies will enable in situ analysis of genes and their spatial position in the nucleus and on chromosomes; the 3D relationships between chromosomes and their conformation; chromosome and gene copy number variation; and chromosomal compartments, TADs, and loops.
ReadCoor, a Church lab spinout that was acquired by 10x Genomics last year for $350 million, uses FISSEQ, which is not part of Acuity's exclusive license.