Accelerate Your Oncology Research

Tumor • Microenvironment • Immune Response

Cancer is a complex disease characterized by interactions between the tumor, microenvironment, and immune system. A broader and deeper understanding of the biology and signaling pathways that lead to cancer enables scientists to better identify, characterize, and target biomarkers that can ultimately be translated into clinical applications. Advances in molecular tools now enable a multiomic, holistic view of cancer that rapidly advances the understanding of how tumors develop, evade the immune system, and progress.

Challenges

Cancer is a constellation of highly heterogenous diseases that share a common origin in mutations that drive key cellular functions like proliferation and cell death. Each cell in a tumor can bear its own genomic alterations and expression programs. Tissue-based and microenvironmental pressures add their own unique features to tumor pathology. Patients may also respond differently to treatment due to their own genetic makeup and microbiome, creating challenges for translating insights from model organisms to humans. Finally, the immune response adds an additional axis of complexity that adds to the challenge of cancer research and treatment.

Cancer is not just one disease

Tumor microenvironment impacts immune response

There are many influences to cancer growth and treatment

Not all patients respond to treatments

Biomarkers & signatures needed to understand who responds

Your Trusted Partner in Cancer Research

NanoString has been developing cancer research tools for over 20 years and believes in partnering with scientists to advance their research. We offer integrated, multiomic research tools for every stage of the translational research continuum. Whether you’re profiling the expression of 800+ genes with the nCounter® Analysis System, performing spatial profiling with the GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP), or getting single cell and subcellular spatial multiomics data with the CosMx™ Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI), we are here to partner with you every step of the way.

Three Platforms. Unlimited Potential.

Overcome cancer heterogeneity with a suite of translational tools and solutions that empower you to get actionable insights faster at any scale, from single cells to multi-cellular molecular compartments in the tumor microenvironment.

nCounter®
Analysis System

Discover predictive and prognostic biomarkers
Evaluate mechanisms of treatment response
Monitor disease biomarkers in clinical trials
Stratify patients using validated TIS, PAM50 and LST gene signatures

GeoMx®
Digital Spatial Profiler

Understand tumor heterogeneity
Understand impact of the tumor microenvironment on the immune response
Measure treatment response in clinical trials
Characterize the microenvironment along the tumor invasive margin
Discover and validate spatial biomarkers

CosMx™
Spatial Molecular Imager

Identify cellular neighborhoods that reveal tumor heterogeneity
Reveal functional changes within a tumor at single cell resolution
Characterize up to 100 oncology-specific ligand receptor pairs (including major drug targets) between interacting cells

Select nCounter Oncology Panels

The nCounter Oncology portfolio offers a multitude of curated panels covering application areas in immuno-oncology, breast cancer research, cell and gene therapy, drug development and biomarker discovery, and so much more.

Wheel showing the relationship between Biology and Signatures

PanCancer IO 360™ Panel

This panel examines the complex interplay between the tumor, microenvironment, and immune response in cancer, allowing for a multifaceted characterization of disease biology and interrogation of mechanism of immune evasion. The panel incorporates 48 potentially predictive RUO biological signatures, including TIS.

Breast Cancer 360™ Panel

This panel helps researchers quickly decode the complexities of breast cancer biology, develop novel breast cancer gene signatures, and categorize disease heterogeneity using 48 biological signatures, including signatures based upon the validated PAM50 and TIS assays.

PanCancer Immune Profiling Panel

This panel profiles different immune cell types, common checkpoint inhibitors, CT antigens, and genes covering both the adaptive and innate immune response.

CAR-T Characterization Panel

This panel can be used throughout CAR-T development and manufacturing as a standardized panel of genes for optimizing methods, developing manufacturing acceptance criteria and understanding the host influences beyond manufacturing.

GeoMx DSP Assays for Oncology

Cancer Transcriptome Atlas

This panel profiles the tumor, TME and immune response, and covers 1,962 human transcripts, including the tumor inflammation signature (TIS).

Whole Transcriptome Atlases

The Human and Mouse panels profile all protein-encoding genes from human and mouse samples, with the ability to spike-in up to 400 custom RNA targets.

Immuno-oncology Protein Panels

These panels contain curated content that includes protein targets for IO research such as immune checkpoints and proteins involved in the MAPK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. Each panel includes a core module and can be augmented with add-on modules containing 6-10 targets each.

CosMx SMI Assays for Oncology Research

Circular wheel graphic for the CosMx Human Universal Cell Characterization RNA Panel

Human Universal Cell Characterization Panel

This panel provides robust cell typing and cell-cell interaction analysis, among other applications, for a wide range of human tissues and disease states. Profile the expression of 1000 highly curated targets at subcellular resolution and customize with up to 50 custom targets.

Circular diagram representing CosMx SMI proteins

Protein Assays

These assays enable high-plex analysis of up to 68 proteins from a single FFPE slide with spatial context at single-cell resolution.

Spotlight on Success

“The nCounter Analysis System, GeoMx DSP and CosMx SMI are highly complementary for oncology research, especially for biomarker discovery. nCounter, with its smartly curated panels, allows for rapid screening of alterations in gene expression as well as insight into pathway activity. GeoMx reveals the regions of tissue where these alterations occur, and CosMx deepens this insight down to the single cell and subcellular level. This powerful instrument combo provides an unprecedented view of molecular tissue architecture that can be applied to basic and translational research, especially in cases where tissues samples are scarce and precious.”

Nina Radosevic

Investigative Pathologist, Centre Jean Perrin, INSERM U 1240, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Related Resources

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Blog Post From an Egyptian Papyrus to the Hallmarks of Cancer: A Journey through the Development of Knowledge in Oncology Research

Blog Post Going Beyond PDL-1. Q&A with Dr. Nina Radosevic- Robin, MD.

Blog Post Q&A with Dr. Lisa Butterfield, PhD: Cancer Vaccines & Adoptive Cell Transfer

Blog Post How the Field of Immuno-Oncology is Changing Fast

App Note/Tech Note Ultra-High-Plex Spatial Proteogenomics of FFPE Tissue Sections

Case Studies and Testimonials

Customer Testimonials

Case Studies

Customer Testimonials

Oncology Customer Testimonials

Case Studies

Oncology Case Studies

Publications

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Expression patterns of microRNAs and associated target genes in ulcerated primary cutaneous melanoma

Neoadjuvant enoblituzumab in localized prostate cancer: a single-arm, phase 2 trial

B7 homolog 3 (B7-H3; CD276), a tumor-associated antigen and possible immune checkpoint, is highly expressed in prostate cancer (PCa) and is associated with early recurrence and metastasis. Enoblituzumab is a humanized, Fc-engineered, B7-H3-targeting antibody that mediates antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity.

Digital spatial profiling of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms: Toward a molecular framework for risk stratification

The histopathologic heterogeneity of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) complicates the prediction of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) risk. Intratumoral regions of pancreaticobiliary (PB), intestinal (INT), and gastric foveolar (GF) epithelium may occur with either low-grade dysplasia (LGD) or high-grade dysplasia (HGD).

Single-cell heterogeneity of EGFR and CDK4 co-amplification is linked to immune infiltration in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive brain tumor, with a median survival of ∼15 months. Targeted approaches have not been successful in this tumor type due to the large extent of intratumor heterogeneity.