NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Swedish startup Cartana has signed an agreement to integrate its in situ RNA sequencing (ISS) technology with Lunaphore Technologies' microfluidic tissue processor technology.
Cartana's technology, which was originally developed in the lab of Stockholm University's Mats Nilsson, is based on using barcoded padlock probes to target genes of interest. The probes target cDNA and are amplified in situ using rolling circle amplification, followed by sequencing-by-ligation, also directly on the tissue.
Under the terms of the deal, the companies will work with Nilsson to join the technology with Lunaphore's Fast Fluidic Exchange rapid immunohistochemistry platform in order to develop hardware for automated sequencing and imaging cycles.
The work is being performed with an unspecified amount of support from a Eurostars-2 grant and from the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
"In this project we will introduce a new generation of ISS chemistry with improved performance, and together with Lunaphore we expect to overcome the bottleneck of automating sequencing and imaging cycles, which will make it easy for our customers to establish ISS on microscopes they already have in their laboratories," Cartana CEO Malte Kühnemund said in a statement.
"We believe that the combination of NGISS chemistry together with Lunaphore's fast fluidic exchange technology can transform the field of spatial transcriptomics by reaching unprecedented throughput and automation levels," Diego Dupouy, chief technology officer of Lausanne, Switzerland-based Lunaphore, added.