Molecular Instruments (MI), the molecular diagnostics company providing the HCR imaging platform, has introduced the new HCR Gold and HCR Pro product lines.

The new product lines are expected to expand the company’s HCR imaging platform to support academic research and biopharma drug development.

With the expanded HCR platform, MI will support its fluorescent and chromogenic assays for simultaneous RNA and protein imaging with well-preserved sample morphology.

The HCR platform is designed to advance multiplex, quantitative, high-resolution RNA fluorescence in-situ hybridisation (RNA-FISH) in thick auto-fluorescent samples.

It offers the first straightforward multiplexing, the first quantitative imaging, and the first single-molecule sensitivity in challenging imaging settings.

Also, the platform provides the first unified framework for simultaneous RNA and protein imaging in highly auto-fluorescent samples.

The HCR Gold product line is intended for manual enzyme-free fluorescent workflows and the HCR Pro product line is for automated enzymatic chromogenic and fluorescent workflows.

MI CCO Aneesh Acharya said: “HCR Pro upends an industry that has long been caught between a rock and a hard place, searching for protease pre-treatment conditions for each new target protein such that proteins within the tissue section are chewed up enough to allow penetration of RNA imaging reagents but not so much that the sample falls apart and target proteins can no longer be imaged.

“With HCR Pro, these tradeoffs are eliminated because the workflow is protease-free from day one.”

According to MI, HCR Gold RNA-FISH manual assays enhance signal-to-background in diverse sample types, expanding the versatility of the HCR imaging platform.

The company’s 10-plex HCR Gold spectral imaging enables imaging of ten RNA and/or protein targets with simultaneous quantitative signal amplification for all ten targets.

The HCR Pro automated product line drives protease-free workflows for chromogenic and fluorescent RNA in situ hybridisation in FFPE and fresh/fixed frozen tissue sections.

In contrast, the HCR Pro workflow preserves sample morphology and maintains protein target integrity, said the company.

It allows researchers to simultaneously image two target RNAs and additional target proteins within a single well-preserved sample, while conserving valuable patient specimens.

Both HCR Gold and HCR Pro kits use HCR HiFi Probes, which are interchangeable and provide automatic background suppression using a proprietary trigger mechanism.

MI’s Infinite Catalog offers HCR HiFi Probes for any target RNA in any organism across the tree of life with no design fee, backed by the HCR HiFi Probe Promise.

MI CEO Harry Choi said: “MI is expanding the HCR platform as a uniquely high-performance, elegant, and robust imaging platform, with HCR Gold providing academic researchers the versatility they need for multiplex, quantitative, high-resolution imaging in diverse challenging sample types, and HCR Pro providing biopharma drug developers with clinical-grade automated workflows for compatible RNA and protein imaging in a single specimen with pristine tissue morphology.”