as nstg industry biotechnology founded 2003 1 founders krassen dimitrov amber ratcliffe dwayne dunaway headquarters south lake union seattle washington united states key people brad gray ceo products ncounter analysis system revenue 47.6 million 1 2014 total equity 204 million 1 2015 number of employees 270 1 2015 website www.nanostring.com nanostring technologies inc. nasdaq nstg is a publicly held biotech company that specializes in development of cancer diagnostics tools . 1 the company s technology enables a wide variety of basic research translational medicine and in vitro diagnostics applications . the company was founded by krassen dimitrov amber ratcliffe and dwayne dunaway in 2003 2 3 and is based in seattle washington . 4 nanostring s ncounter analysis system is based on a digital molecular barcoding technology invented by dimitrov and dunaway 5 in leroy hood s lab at the institute for systems biology isb and became commercially available in 2008 . 6 nanostring received a ce mark designation for selling the prosigna breast cancer prognostic gene signature assay pam50 based breast cancer test in israel and eu in september 2012 7 and in september 2013 nanostring received fda 510 k clearance for prosigna . 8 contents 1 technology 2 products 3 history 4 scientific reception 5 publications list 6 references 7 external links technology edit nanostring s ncounter technology is a variation on the dna microarray and was invented and patented by krassen dimitrov and dwayne dunaway . 5 9 it uses molecular barcodes and microscopic imaging to detect and count up to several hundred unique transcripts in one hybridization reaction . 10 each color coded barcode is attached to a single target specific probe corresponding to a gene of interest . the nanostring protocol includes the following steps hybridization nanostring s technology employs two 50 base probes per mrna that hybridize in solution . the reporter probe carries the signal while the capture probe allows the complex to be immobilized for data collection . purification and immobilization after hybridization the excess probes are removed and the probe target complexes are aligned and immobilized in the ncounter cartridge . data collection sample cartridges are placed in the digital analyzer instrument for data collection . color codes on the surface of the cartridge are counted and tabulated for each target molecule . products edit nanostring products include the ncounter analysis system the system consists of two instruments the prep station which is an automated fluidic instrument that immobilizes codeset complexes for data collection and the digital analyzer which derives data by counting fluorescent barcodes . as of march 2015 264 of these systems were installed around the world over 50 % in research institutions . 1 codesets these are custom made or pre designed sets of color coded probes pre mixed with a set of system controls . history edit the original patent that is the basis for the ncounter analysis system was invented and licensed from the institute for systems biology . the business plan was written by amber ratcliffe and aaron coe and won seed funding in multiple business plan competitions . 11 nanostring was spun out of the institute for systems biology and founded as a separate company in 2003 by krassen dimitrov amber ratcliffe and dwayne dunaway . in 2004 nanostring raised its first significant funding in a 4.3 m series a financing . 12 they have since raised several more rounds of financing to expand into the development of molecular diagnostics . as of 2011 nanostring technologies had raised nearly 70m with their series d. 13 14 15 in 2009 perry fell who had been ceo since 2004 left the company abruptly and with no official explanation . 16 between 2009 and 2010 the company operated with an acting ceo wayne burns . 14 17 brad gray a former genzyme executive was hired as president and ceo in 2010 . 17 as of june 2010 the company was not yet profitable . 17 in an interview gray suggested that nanostring would begin to develop clinical diagnostics . 17 as of july 2012 nanostring began indicating a move towards becoming a public company by hiring several senior staff with public company experience . 18 nanostring received a ce mark designation for selling the prosigna breast cancer prognostic gene signature assay pam50 based breast cancer test in israel and eu in september 2012 and in september 2013 nanostring received fda 510 k clearance for prosigna . in 2013 the company s ipo raised 54 million that was used to expand nanostring sales and marketing efforts . as the result nanostring revenue has increased by 52 % in 2014 2015 financial year . 1 scientific reception edit a protocol published in current protocols in molecular biology discussed several advantages and disadvantages of the nanostring technology . the author praised the reproducibility sensitivity and low background signal of the technology and also noted that nanostring does not require amplification of target molecules . the article mentioned the high upfront cost of the necessary instruments as a drawback and suggested that at least three probes should be used per potential target which would greatly increase cost and reduce the maximum multiplexing of the technology . according to the author nanostring represents a middle ground between quantitative pcr and other hybridization microarray technologies . 19 elsewhere nanostring technology has been described as highly sensitive . 20 publications list edit publication list geiss gary k ; bumgarner roger e ; birditt brian ; dahl timothy ; dowidar naeem ; dunaway dwayne l ; fell h perry ; ferree sean ; george renee d ; grogan tammy ; james jeffrey j ; maysuria malini ; mitton jeffrey d ; oliveri paola ; osborn jennifer l ; peng tao ; ratcliffe amber l ; webster philippa j ; davidson eric h ; hood leroy ; dimitrov krassen 2008 . direct multiplexed measurement of gene expression with color coded probe pairs . nature biotechnology . 26 3 317 25 . doi 10.1038 nbt1385 . pmid 18278033 . materna stefan c. ; nam jongmin ; davidson eric h. 2010 . high accuracy high resolution prevalence measurement for the majority of locally expressed regulatory genes in early sea urchin development . gene expression patterns . 10 4 5 177 84 . doi 10.1016 j.gep .2010.04.002 . pmc 2902461 . pmid 20398801 . dixit evelyn ; boulant steeve ; zhang yijing ; lee amy s.y. ; odendall charlotte ; shum bennett ; hacohen nir ; chen zhijian j. ; whelan sean p. ; fransen marc ; nibert max l. ; superti furga giulio ; kagan jonathan c. 2010 . peroxisomes are signaling platforms for antiviral innate immunity . cell . 141 4 668 81 . doi 10.1016 j.cell .2010.04.018 . pmc 3670185 . pmid 20451243 . nam j. ; dong p. ; tarpine r. ; istrail s. ; davidson e. h. 2010 . functional cis regulatory genomics for systems biology . proceedings of the national academy of sciences . 107 8 3930 5 . bibcode 2010pnas . .107.3930 n. doi 10.1073 pnas .1000147107 . jstor 40537388 . pmc 2840491 . pmid 20142491 . smith elizabeth r. ; cai kathy qi ; smedberg jennifer l. ; ribeiro melina m. ; rula malgorzata e. ; slater carolyn ; godwin andrew k. ; xu xiang xi 2010 . bauer joseph alan ed . nuclear entry of activated mapk is restricted in primary ovarian and mammary epithelial cells . plos one . 5 2 e9295 . doi 10.1371 journal.pone .0009295 . pmc 2823791 . pmid 20174585 . ouellet mario ; adams paul d ; keasling jay d ; mukhopadhyay aindrila 2009 . a rapid and inexpensive labeling method for microarray gene expression analysis . bmc biotechnology . 9 97 . doi 10.1186 1472 6750 9 97 . pmc 2790446 . pmid 19939278 . amit ido ; garber manuel ; chevrier nicolas ; leite ana paula ; donner yoni ; eisenhaure thomas ; guttman mitchell ; grenier jennifer k. ; li or ; zuk lisa a. ; schubert brian ; birditt tal ; shay alon ; goren xiaolan ; zhang zachary ; smith raquel ; deering rebecca c. ; mcdonald moran ; cabili bradley e ; bernstein john l. ; rinn alex ; meissner david e. ; root nir ; hacohen aviv ; regev a. 2009 . unbiased reconstruction of a mammalian transcriptional network mediating pathogen responses . science . 326 5950 257 63 . bibcode 2009sci ... 326 . .257 a. doi 10.1126 science .1179050 . pmc 2879337 . pmid 19729616 . palamanda jairam ; kumari pramila ; murgolo nicholas ; benbow larry ; lin xinjie ; nomeir amin 2009 . evaluation of cyp1a1 and cyp2b1 2 m rna induction in rat liver slices using the nanostring technology a novel tool for drug discovery lead optimization . drug metabolism letters . 3 3 171 5 . doi 10.2174 187231209789352094 . pmid 19702544 . payton jacqueline e. ; grieselhuber nicole r. ; chang li wei ; murakami mark ; geiss gary k. ; link daniel c. ; nagarajan rakesh ; watson mark a. ; ley timothy j. 2009 . high throughput digital quantification of mrna abundance in primary human acute myeloid leukemia samples . journal of clinical investigation . 119 6 1714 26 . doi 10.1172 jci38248 . pmc 2689138 . pmid 19451695 . malkov vladislav a ; serikawa kyle a ; balantac noel ; watters james ; geiss gary ; mashadi hossein afshin ; fare thomas 2009 . multiplexed measurements of gene signatures in different analytes using the nanostring ncounter assay system . bmc research notes . 2 80 . doi 10.1186 1756 0500 2 80 . pmc 2688518 . pmid 19426535 . su yi hsien ; li enhu ; geiss gary k. ; longabaugh william j.r. ; kr mer alexander ; davidson eric h. 2009 . a perturbation model of the gene regulatory network for oral and aboral ectoderm specification in the sea urchin embryo . developmental biology . 329 2 410 21 . doi 10.1016 j.ydbio .2009.02.029 . pmc 2677136 . pmid 19268450 . birtwell sam ; morgan hywel 2009 . microparticle encoding technologies for high throughput multiplexed suspension assays . integrative biology . 1 5 6 345 62 . doi 10.1039 b905502a . pmid 20023742 . references edit a b c d e f g annie zak 20 march 2015 . nanostring pulls in 52 % more sales . puget sound business journal . 35 48 . seattle american city business journals . p. 39 . issn 8750 7757 . lccn 99107105 . oclc 11683053 . kimberly stegmaier . krassen dimitrov of isb on business and better microarray labels bioarray news arrays . genomeweb . retrieved 2012 10 14 . nocera joseph 2004 04 05 . a tale of two companies one started in 1955 and is in the fortune 500 . the other started five months ago and doesn t have an office yet . what it takes to reach the pinnacle of business . april 5 2004 . money.cnn.com . retrieved 2012 10 14 . http seattletimes.nwsource.com html businesstechnology 2002002077 nanostring11.html a b methods for detection and quantification of analytes in complex mixtures the institute for systems biology . freepatentsonline.com . 2008 08 20 . retrieved 2012 10 16 . lee hood s proteges strike again nanostring ships its first commercial cell analyzer . xconomy . retrieved 2012 10 14 . nanostring gets eu clearance to sell breast cancer diagnostic test . xconomy . 2012 09 27 . retrieved 2012 10 14 . nanostring wins fda approval of breast cancer diagnostic test . xconomy . 2013 09 09 . retrieved 2013 09 09 . united states patent 7919237 . patft.uspto.gov . retrieved 2012 10 14 . geiss gary k ; bumgarner roger e ; birditt brian ; dahl timothy ; dowidar naeem ; dunaway dwayne l ; fell h perry ; ferree sean ; george renee d ; grogan tammy ; james jeffrey j ; maysuria malini ; mitton jeffrey d ; oliveri paola ; osborn jennifer