New spatial biology foundry generates spatial data at foundation-model scale to advance AI-driven drug discovery

Vizgen Inc., a leader in spatial multi-omics and developer of MERFISH technology, today announced the launch of Velocity Lab™, a central foundry to generate decision-grade spatial biology data together with collaborators at unprecedented scale. Velocity Lab pairs the sensitivity for which the company's MERSCOPE® Platform is known with new technologies required for the measurements that the most advanced models of biology need.

Available to partners now, Velocity Lab is scaling toward transcriptome-scale spatial profiling of hundreds of millions of cells per week in 2027. Presently, Velocity Lab offers researchers two new capabilities for biological discovery and drug development:

• Volumetric Tissue Mapping™: profiles thick tissue to capture three-dimensional cell neighborhoods, tissue architecture, and disease microenvironments that thin sections cannot resolve. By imaging the full depth of tissue, up to 100 µm versus a standard ~10 µm section, Volumetric Tissue Mapping captures up to ~4× more neighboring cells per cell, revealing disease biology and cellular relationships that would otherwise remain hidden. In addition to accessing Volumetric Tissue Mapping through Velocity Lab, researchers can place orders for the MERSCOPE Ultra Z™ Installation Package for pairing with their existing MERSCOPE Ultra™ systems.
• Same-slide RNA and protein co-detection (MERSCOPE CoMap™): measures high-plex, researcher-selected proteins alongside RNA in the same tissue section, connecting molecular identity with functional state in a single experiment. The combined readout supports studies of target validation, mechanism of action, safety profiling and treatment response. CoMap draws on the ultrasensitive spatial proteomics expertise Vizgen added through its acquisition of Ultivue in 2024.

Vizgen is also equipping Velocity Lab for spatially resolved functional genomics. Early-access collaborations will enable researchers, through pooled perturbations, to investigate disease mechanisms and identify novel therapeutic targets while preserving the cellular and tissue context lost in bulk approaches.

“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 & CEO, Vizgen Inc.

First partners generating novel data

Initial Velocity Lab research collaborations are underway, including a large multi-national biopharma partner using Volumetric Tissue Mapping™ for neuroscience drug discovery and a leading independent nonprofit research organization using MERSCOPE CoMap™ for high-plex multiomics profiling.

"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., Sr. Scientist, the Allen Institute.

Together, these capabilities move spatial biology beyond thin-section snapshots toward data with the depth and functional context predictive biology requires, generated at the scale that cell atlasing, disease research, and drug development demand.

Availability

Velocity Lab is open now to partners, with additional research collaborations opening as capacity expands. To learn more about capabilities or to scope a potential project, contact us at VelocityLab@vizgen.com or submit your project details here.

Researchers interested in bringing Volumetric Tissue Mapping to their own labs can order the MERSCOPE Ultra Z™ Installation Package today.

Vizgen at Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2026

The Neuroscience 2026 meeting runs November 14–18 in Washington, D.C. Visit the Vizgen team at booth #422 to discuss early access to Volumetric Tissue Mapping.

Poster Presentation 1
Title: Cellular Organization Resolved through Three-Dimensional MERFISH Transcriptomics Volumetric Tissue Mapping
Poster Number: LBP071.15
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 8:00 a.m.

Poster Presentation 2
Title: MERFISH-to-Allen Alignment Tool (MAAT): A Web Application for Registering MERFISH Mouse Brain Data to the Allen Common Coordinate Framework and Exporting Per-Cell Anatomical Annotations
Poster Number: LBP072.02
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 8:00 a.m.

About Vizgen®

Vizgen® is at the forefront of spatial biology and multi-omics innovation. Co-founded by leaders in single-cell and spatial genomics, including Xiaowei Zhuang, PhD, David Walt, PhD, and Jeffrey Moffitt, PhD, Vizgen builds technologies that equip researchers for discovery in foundational biology and human disease. These include its pioneering MERFISH 2.0™ chemistry and MERSCOPE Ultra™ Platform for in situ single-cell spatial genomics. MERFISH is for research use only. Vizgen is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with R&D and lab services operations in nearby Cambridge. For more information, visit www.vizgen.com or connect on social media at X, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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"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.” -- Rob Carson, President & CEO, Vizgen Inc.