Bioteknologi
10x Genomics (TXG): Bring biologiske data til et nyt niveau
Hvorfor rumlig biologi betyder noget
The past decade has seen the rise of precision therapies and Next-Generation-Sequencing (NGS), which have revolutionized diagnostics and medicine. These methods allowed doctors and researchers to move from an approach that targets the whole body (like with drugs) to tailored and targeted treatment or detection methods focused on a specific type of cell or DNA sequence.
Alligevel er dette ikke det sidste niveau af, hvor dyb biologisk analyse kan gå. Selv i et givet organ eller en type væv (som for eksempel hjernen eller en tumor) vil individuelle celler opføre sig meget forskelligt fra hinanden.
Så selvom værktøjer som NGS-sekventeringsmaskiner samler data fra tusinder eller endda millioner af celler samtidigt, har forskere ofte brug for at finde ud af, hvad der sker i én enkelt celle ad gangen, med nanometerpræcision. For at nå dette detaljeringsniveau blev et nyt videnskabsområde skabt: rumlig biologi. Og én virksomhed træder frem som leder inden for dette område: 10x Genomics.
(TXG )
Hvad er rumlig biologi?
Hvad måler rumlig biologi (og hvorfor)
Instead of looking at the “mix” of molecules in a sample, spatial biology can determine where in a tissue or a single cell a molecule of interest, like a specific sequence of RNA, is located. And this is either in 2D or 3D.
Dette vil fortælle forskere, hvordan celler interagerer med hinanden, hvordan forsvarsmekanismer aktiveres, hvordan en celle reagerer på kontakt med en virus osv.
Dette har også den fordel, at det leverer meget mere følsomme data. Mens data om noget, der sker i kun få celler, kan drukne i en større prøve, kan den målrettede tilgang i rumlig biologi afsløre de centrale roller for lokaliserede fænomener eller sjældne celletype.
Endnu vigtigere kan de indsamlede data sættes i kontekst med den bredere aktivitet af omkringliggende celler i et væv, hvilket er langt mere informativt end analyse fra en isoleret enkeltcelle eller mikrodisksektion.
“Rumligt opløst transkriptomik fremhæver, hvordan disse teknologier er modnet og udvidet for at give biologer enestående indblik i enkeltcellers biologi, mens de bevarer information om den rumlige kontekst.”
Vigtige rumlige omics-modaliteter
Spatial Biology can be used to understand living cells and analyze specific signals. Among the many types of biological activities that can be measured this way, the most important that can be mentioned are:
- Rumlig genomik: analysen af DNA og genomet.
- Rumlig transkriptomik: analysen af mRNA, den faktiske aktivitet fra genomet’s kodning.
- Rumlig proteomik: analysen af udtrykte proteinprofiler såsom antistofreceptorer, immunmarkører osv.
- Rumlig metabolomik: analysen af specifikke biomolekyler, såsom hormoner, kræftbiomarkører osv.
10x Genomics: Virksomhed & Platforme
10x Genomics is one of the pioneers in single-cell analysis and spatial biology, having developed equipment in this field since its foundation in 2012. One of its founders, Serge Saxonov, was previously the founding architect and director of research and development at genetic testing company 23andMe.
10x Genomics did its IPO in 2019 and has been releasing a series of single-cell and spatial biology analytical tools since.
Source: 10x Genomics
Chromium, Visium HD og Xenium
In total, the company has sold 7,000+ analytical instruments, of which 1,050+ were sold in 2024 alone.
While pure spatial biology is driving the company forward technically, it is the single-cell analysis Chromium platform that has sold the most for now, with 5,800+ units sold.
Source: 10x Genomics
Source: 10x Genomics
The two other main platforms of 10x Genomics are Visium and Xenium:
- Visium is using NGS (genomic) to create a whole transcriptome for each small 2-µm area of a tissue sample.
- Xenium is using imaging (microscopy) to measure the gene expression of targeted genes (up to 5,000 genes) for each individual cell in a tissue sample.
Overall, Visium will be most useful to researchers to give them an overview of the biological activity in a given area, while Xenium will give insight into specific activities they already know to be of interest in a specific case.
As more data accumulates and Xenium’s capacity grows, universal single-cell analysis at the tissue sample scale is likely to become the gold standard of biotech research.
Swipe for at rulle →
| Platform | Primary Technique | What It Measures | Resolution | Typical Use Cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromium | Enkeltcelle-partitionering + NGS | Hele transkriptom enkeltcelleprofiler (plus ATAC, V(D)J) | Celle-niveau (ingen rumlig kontekst) | Opdagelse af celletype, trajektorie, immunrepertoire |
| Visium HD | Rumlig genekspression (NGS) | Hele transkriptomet på tværs af vævssektioner | ~2 µm pixels (enkeltcelle-skala) | Vævarkitektur, kortlægning af mikro-miljø |
| Xenium | In-situ billeddannelse (målrettet) | Målrettet RNA (op til 5.000 gener) ± protein pr. celle | Subcellulær; pr. celle kald | Studier i nærheden af patologi, validering af biomarkører |
10x Genomics Finans
This generated $611M in revenues in 2024, of which $493M in consumables.
The high percentage of consumables in total revenues illustrates that the company’s business model is similar to NGS company Illumina (ILMN ), where the sale of equipment is driving long-term recurring sales of consumables (chemicals, dyes, reagents, etc.) to keep them operating.
Opkøb
The company completed its technical offering by acquiring in 2018 Epinomics, a biotechnology company focused on epigenetics, and Spatial Transcriptomics, a biotechnology company focused on spatial genomics.
It was followed by the acquisitions of CARTANA (molecule detection in the cell – “in-situ”) and ReadCoor (sub-cellular nanoscale 3D resolution) in 2020, Tetramer (high-definition tissue analysis) in 2021, and Scale Biosciences (scalable single cell analysis) in 2025.
This makes 10x Genomics not just an innovator, but also an aggregator of these emerging technologies from smaller innovative teams. 10x Genomics then incorporates them into a cohesive whole and common analysis platform and tools, allowing researchers to use only one device for multiple types of analysis.
This is important for efficient R&D, as comparing results between different types of machines and analytical methods can be difficult, reducing the usefulness of disparate results from multiple sources.
Markedsudsigter for rumlig biologi (2025–2030)
Due to the extreme level of information it provides, spatial biology is a method in direct competition with many less precise and powerful legacy biological analysis tools, from decades-old ones like ELISA, Western blot, and PCR, to more advanced ones like flow cytometry or bulk sequencing.
Source: 10x Genomics
Rumlig biologi, også nogle gange kaldet spatial-omics, var et marked på $711M i 2024 og forventes at nå $1,7B i 2030, med en årlig vækst på 16,3%.
Det er værd at bemærke, at selvom anerkendelsen fra Nature i 2020 som en lovende teknik var det første vendepunkt, er det først nu, teknologien går ind i en eksponentiel fase med hensyn til omsætningsvækst.
Source: GrandView Research
For nu er markedet primært domineret af akademisk og forskningsinstitutionsaktivitet, mens biotek- og farmaceutiske virksomheder kun begynder at adoptere teknologien til deres egne anvendte F&D-behov. Mange top videnskabelige publikationer bruger nu 10x Genomics-maskiner, en voksende tendens, da publicering af nye opdagelser er et meget konkurrencepræget felt.
Source: 10x Genomics
Efterhånden som top videnskabelige publikationer i stigende grad bruger rumlig biologi til nye indsigter, bliver teknologien mere almindeligt adopteret i forskningslaboratorier, som skal forblive konkurrencedygtige for at fortsætte med at publicere i top videnskabelige tidsskrifter.
Det er dog den private sektors efterspørgsel, der forventes at drive størstedelen af nye salg i sektoren fremover, da teknologien nu er bedre forstået, billigere end før, og en større akademisk vidensbase af publicerede videnskabelige artikler og databaser samt uddannede biologer kan udnyttes til at udvikle praktiske anvendelser.
Samlet set forventer 10x Genomics, at biopharma-omsætningen vil vokse fra 20 % af den samlede omsætning til 50 % i de kommende år.
Konkurrence inden for rumlig & enkeltcellebiologi
Rumlig biologi
Overall, the market for spatial biology can be divided by the companies operating in it, based on their geographical reach and technical expertise. Only 10x Genomics and Bruker can have both a global geographical reach and move beyond niche technical capacities.
Source: GrandView Research
Bruker bought the assets of 10x Genomics’s competitor NanoString when it filed for bankruptcy in 2024. It merged NanoString with previously acquired Canopy Biosciences and Acuity Genomics to form Bruker Spatial Biology.
NanoString and 10x Genomics have been involved in a complex patent-infringement litigation since 2023, which has significantly contributed to NanoString’s 2024 bankruptcy.
In May 2025, the two companies agreed to end their dispute after signing a global cross-license agreement, ending all litigation. This is overall good news for shareholders of both companies, as this removes a lot of uncertainty linked to these legal cases.
“Vi er begejstrede for at kunne fokusere på den indvirkning og værdi, som disse produkter leverer til opdagelsesforskning, translational forskning og præcisionsmedicin, og vi er glade for at have distraktionen og omkostningerne ved disse retssager bag os.”
Rivaler inden for enkeltcelleplatforme
The market for single-cell analysis is a little more competitive, with, for example, new activity from large lab instrument makers like Qiagen moving with the acquisition of single-cell analysis company Parse Biosciences for $225M + milestone payments.
This segment might become progressively more competitive, as single-cell analysis becomes more common and new technology challenges 10x Genomics’ dominance with its Chromium platform.
However, as this market is a $3.5B market growing at 14.5% CAGR, there is likely space for more actors, each carving a specific niche depending on technical requirements and preinstalled base of equipment in a given research lab.
Fra forskning til diagnostik: Hvad er næste skridt
For now, spatial biology is mostly a research tool, used to better understand living tissues’ activities at a level of precision never reached before. This is very similar to how advanced NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) tools were used from the 1980s and 1990s to further our understanding of biology, both human and non-human.
Progressively, as these instruments got cheaper and knowledge accumulated, new applications kept being developed using NGS, and they became basic equipment of all biolabs.
Today, simple genetic tests are a common diagnostic tool, as illustrated by the omnipresent PCR tests during the COVID pandemic.
The same direction is likely to be seen with spatial biology. From the current academic research usage, usage by biotech and pharmaceutical firms will keep growing. First in their own applied research progress, and then in diagnostics: initially for serious cases like cancer, increasingly for mundane check-ups.
This gives companies like 10x Genomics a large space to expand, as this technology matures and continues to grow, similar to its older NGS counterpart, Illumina.
AI og rumlig biologi: træningsdata til Bio-AI
AI analysis is becoming a crucial tool in biology, perhaps not surprisingly, given that the main obstacle to progress in biotech is the sheer volume and complexity of biological data.
By creating a fully contextualized, coherent, and spatially resolved data set, 10x Genomics’s equipment is specially fit to create the dataset on which biotech AI can be trained.
“They have already advanced biological discovery, and with 10x’s innovation engine, that impact will only accelerate.
This integration will help the research community generate the high-quality data needed to drive AI-powered breakthroughs in medicine.
Garry Nolan, PhD, medstifter af Scale Biosciences (opkøbt af 10x Genomics i 2025)
This, in turn, can be used to improve researchers’ understanding of what data still needs to be generated, creating further demand for spatial biology analytical tools.
Source: 10x Genomics
AI also makes spatial biology more useful, as it can deal with the literal flood of data that the technology creates.
Dataanalyse har længe været en af de største flaskehalse i enkeltcelle- og rumlig forskning.
Vores nylige partnerskab med Anthropic hjælper med at løse dette problem og gør analyse mere tilgængelig ved at integrere den med Claude for Life Sciences.
Med Claude kan forskere nu udføre almindelige analytiske opgaver gennem en samtalegrænseflade, der supplerer vores eksisterende beregningsarbejdsgange.
For example, such insights can enable scientists to better categorize tumor types and make more accurate predictions of responses to therapy, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.
Source: 10x Genomics
Ultimately, enough gathered data could help create the so-called “Holy Grail of biology“: an AI-powered virtual cell realistic enough to allow for the perfect simulation of the real living cells.
There are strong reasons to expect that scaling of data will result in vastly more capable models, as it has in just about every other application of artificial intelligence.
These models hold the promise of transforming science, drug discovery, and ultimately human health. We believe that virtual cell efforts represent one of the most important trends in biology in the coming years.
Konklusion
10x Genomics is transitioning from the stage of an innovative startup with an interesting technology to a key industry partners for most biological research organizations, both academic and commercial.
The data-rich understanding of living cells and tissues created by spatial biology and single-cell analyses creates the kind of information that arrives at the right moment to be leveraged by increasingly powerful AIs.
In turn, this should speed up discovery speed in biotech and make spatial biology equipment even more useful, creating a positive feedback loop.
This is not to say that the company is a perfectly safe investment. As it operates in a quickly changing field, competition is still intense, and NanoString, now resurrected inside Bruker, or companies like Qiagen, could be serious competitors.
But for now, 10x Genomics’ quick innovation and strategic acquisitions have put it in a solid position to dominate the field.
