The original patent forming the basis for the nCounter Analysis System was invented and licensed by 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. 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 2008, NanoString launched the nCounter Analysis System and began international sales operations with its first multiplexed assays for
gene expression analysis. In 2009, Perry Fell, who had been CEO since 2004, left the company abruptly without official explanation. Between 2009 and 2010, the company operated with an acting CEO, Wayne Burns. In an interview, Gray suggested that NanoString would begin to develop clinical diagnostics. In 2013, the company's
IPO raised funding to expand NanoString sales and marketing. Their second spatial biology platform, the CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI), was announced in February 2022, enabling multiplexed detection of RNA and protein at single-cell resolution in tissue. Commercial shipments of CosMx and its companion AtoMx Spatial Informatics Platform began in December 2022. On February 4, 2024, NanoString Technologies filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy after laying off 20% of its workforce in October 2023. The company began exploring options to support its restructuring, including a potential sale of itself. On April 19, 2024, the sale of NanoString Technologies to the
Bruker Corporation was approved and later that month Bruker announced a definitive acquisition agreement had been entered between the companies. Bruker acquired the assets and rights associated with NanoString's business for $392.6 million in cash. Following the acquisition, Bruker formed Bruker Spatial Biology, a new division comprising the assets from NanoString,
Canopy Biosciences, and Bruker Spatial Genomics (formerly known as Acuity Spatial Genomics). ==Technology and products==