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MERSCOPE Ultra / MERFISH 2.0 — Vizgen

Vizgen's MERSCOPE Ultra refresh extends predesigned panel coverage and adds organoid support, keeping MERFISH in the in-situ multiomics race against Xenium, CosMx, and G4X.

At a glance

  • Vendor / launch date / availability: Vizgen; roadmap presented at AGBT 2026 (Marco Island, Feb 22–25); commercial availability TBD per GEN AGBT 2026 recap, Feb–Mar 2026.
  • Chemistry / modality: MERFISH 2.0 — combinatorial error-robust single-molecule FISH; cyclic imaging on the MERSCOPE Ultra instrument.
  • Panel breadth (PR): Expanded predesigned panels (specific gene-count tiers TBD — vendor PR did not enumerate plex levels at AGBT) per GEN AGBT recap (vendor PR — no independent benchmark).
  • Sample type: FFPE, fresh-frozen, plus new organoid support per GEN AGBT recap (vendor PR — no independent benchmark).
  • Proteomics roadmap: MERSCOPE-protein co-detection flagged on the Vizgen roadmap; specifics TBD.
  • List price / cost-per-sample: TBD — no public pricing at AGBT.

What's new vs prior generation

MERSCOPE Ultra is positioned as the next-generation instrument refresh: expanded predesigned panels (reducing time-to-data for users who don't need a custom MERFISH library design), explicit organoid workflow support (a tissue type the original MERSCOPE could handle but not at fully validated reagent-kit level), and proteomic co-detection on the roadmap. The pitch is to keep MERFISH competitive on plex and image quality while removing the custom-panel-design tax that historically slowed MERSCOPE adoption versus the more turnkey Xenium / CosMx panel catalogs.

Headline benchmarks

Expanded predesigned MERFISH 2.0 panels with new organoid support on MERSCOPE Ultra (vendor PR — no independent benchmark) — GEN AGBT 2026 recap, Feb–Mar 2026.

No third-party benchmark of MERSCOPE Ultra panel sensitivity vs Xenium / CosMx mouse-tissue panels has been published as of mid-May 2026; transcript-detection efficiency, blank-probe false-positive rate, and per-cell capture metrics are TBD.

Reception / competitive context

Vizgen entered AGBT 2026 as a defensive incumbent: MERFISH retains a plex and quantitative-image-quality narrative, but the platform has lost shelf-space momentum to Xenium and CosMx over 2024–2025. The Ultra / 2.0 refresh and the organoid-support angle are designed to keep MERSCOPE on the consideration set against Xenium RNA+Protein, CosMx mouse WT + 64-protein, and the newcomer Singular Genomics G4X spatial sequencer. The GenomeWeb spatial recap lists Vizgen alongside Bruker and 10x as the established in-situ-imager trio that G4X and Stellaromics are now attacking.

Sources