# High Capacity UltraFISH for Single-cell Spatial Transcriptomics

> **NIH NIH R43** · DAVINCI BIO, INC. · 2020 · $499,249

## Abstract

SBIR Abstract
 Single cell biology is a multi-disciplinary study to investigate how large amount of
molecular species interact with each other in single cells and how large population of cells work
together as a complex system. Identifying the difference of gene expression and the spatial
organization of tissues at the single-cell level is essential to decipher tissue heterogeneity,
organ development, and understand the biological systems profoundly, and ultimately benefit
precision and personalized medicine. Currently, single cell RNA sequencing is widely used to
analyze the gene expression patterns of single cells. However, single cell RNA sequencing has
significant limitations, including lack of spatial information, low RNA detection efficiency and low
cell capture efficiency. Existing multiplexed in-situ detection technologies like MERFISH and
seqFISH can overcome these limitations but has long turnaround time. UltraFISH, developed by
Rainbow Diagnostics, significantly improves the turnaround time for a small panel of RNA
detection in-situ. High Capacity UltraFISH is to further advance the multiplex capacity of
UltraFISH so that a large RNA panel such as the whole human transcriptome from a large
region of tissue can be efficiently and quickly profiled in hours. With the successful outcome of
this proposal, High Capacity UltraFISH will revolutionize the single cell analysis field, leading to
breakthroughs in our understanding of biological and disease mechanisms in the near future.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9909612
- **Project number:** 1R43GM136063-01
- **Recipient organization:** DAVINCI BIO, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Wei Zhang
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $499,249
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-02-19 → 2021-11-18

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9909612

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9909612, High Capacity UltraFISH for Single-cell Spatial Transcriptomics (1R43GM136063-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9909612. Licensed CC0.

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