Nearly a year after expanding from single cell omics solutions into spatial biology, Takara Bio USA has launched a series of updates to its product portfolio designed to bring its new class of spatial technology to more researchers.
Takara Bio USA has expanded its instrument-free Trekker™ Single-Cell Spatial Mapping Kits for compatibility with formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. By making its Trekker kits compatible with the commonly used archival sample type, Takara aims to broaden use of its technology by making spatial single-cell analysis more accessible to a wider variety of researchers.
“FFPE compatibility is really an important aspect of spatial biology,” Andrew Farmer, PhD, chief scientific officer of Takara Bio USA, told GEN. “That’s going to be quite transformative, because just having the ability to access all those archived samples, you can start to think about doing cohort-type studies, looking at multiple samples over time, due to the fact that those can be stored. It really opens up a lot of research.”
In a study published in January, researchers estimated that more than one billion FFPE blocks are stored in hospitals and tissue banks worldwide.
“They are the workhorse for clinical discovery and analysis, so unlocking those samples for spatial analysis, I think, is very key,” Farmer said. “Trekker FX will allow that, and I think importantly, will give you a sensitivity that nobody’s seen before in a spatial assay, because it will be a native single-cell assay but coming from FFPE blocks, so I think that’s going to be very, very powerful.”
The Trekker kits have also been enhanced for compatibility with additional research workflows and third-party instrument systems, including the single-cell library prep platforms of 10x Genomics, BD Biosciences, Illumina, and Parse Biosciences.
“I think that actually underlies something about us: We’re a very collaborative company. We’ve always been a company that wants to work with others,” Farmer said.
The expanded Trekker incorporates more applications and integrations intended to support new research, with the aim of advancing a platform-agnostic approach designed to deliver true single-cell spatial resolution with deeper biological insights from multiomics experiments. The enhanced Trekker technology is designed to integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, providing a simplified way to add a spatial dimension to single-cell research.
Trekker kits are also now available as an end-to-end spatial biology solution that combines spatial omics with epigenetics and immune profiling, including a combined epigenetic and RNA-seq readout.
To support its expanding pipeline of applications, Takara Bio USA is also introducing an enhanced, end-to-end bioinformatics software solution, with technical support offered through dedicated field application scientists and a technical support team created to help researchers using open-source software tools to optimize downstream analysis.
Based in San Jose, CA, Takara Bio USA manufactures and distributes life sciences kits, reagents, and instruments—including NGS, PCR, gene delivery, genome editing, stem cell research, nucleic acid and protein purification, and automated sample preparation.
Takara Bio USA has also expanded its R&D team focused on spatial biology, integrating its spatial team based in Palo Alto, CA into its San Jose, CA facilities. The company has also moved all manufacturing of its Trekker and Seeker spatial biology solutions to the manufacturing facilities of parent Takara Bio, a move the company says will offer it the capacity to meet growing global demand by scaling production.
Takara Bio USA is a single-cell RNA-seq leader, having launched the first commercially available kits for single-cell RNA in 2011 followed three years later by the launch of its first DNA sequencing-related kit, the DNA SMART ChIP-Seq Kit.
In 2021, the company launched its SMART-Seq Pro kit for the ICELL8 cx Single-Cell System, an automated single-cell RNA-seq solution enabling researchers to generate full-length transcriptome data from more than 1,500 single cells simultaneously, as well as from a wide range of sample types going as large as adult cardiomyocytes.
Takara Bio USA moved beyond single cell into spatial biology in January when it acquired spatial genomics pioneer Curio Bioscience for an undisclosed price. The deal created a combined company that added to Takara’s portfolio of single-cell genomics tools with Curio’s two spatial biology platforms, Trekker and Seeker Spatial Transcriptomics Kit, designed to enable whole transcriptome, spatial mapping of fresh frozen tissues at what the company calls industry-leading resolution.
“Takara Bio is providing researchers with a new way to approach spatial biology—faster, easier, more cost-effective, and with richer multiomic insights,” Farmer added.
Takara Bio USA plans to present its newest offerings at next week’s American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting, to be held October 14–18 in Boston. At ASHG, Farmer will deliver a CoLab Session talk titled “A new class of spatial technology—acquire spatial and single-cell data in a single experiment” on October 16 from 12:45 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. in Theater 1.
Farmer’s history with Takara Bio USA stretches back to 1998 when he joined what was Clontech Laboratories. A year later, Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) acquired the company for about $200 million. BD sold Clontech in 2005 for $60 million to Takara Bio, which turned the company into a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary that in 2016 was renamed Takara Bio USA.
“As we celebrate Takara Bio USA’s 20th anniversary, we mark an important milestone in our history as a trusted partner to researchers worldwide,” said Carol Lou, president and CEO of Takara Bio USA.
Takara Bio USA is a provider of life science research solutions that range from enzymes and GMP-grade reagents to contracted cell and gene therapy manufacturing services. Based in Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan, Takara is the first company in Asia to start developing PCR enzymes and restriction enzymes.
Takara Bio finished its fiscal year ending March 31 with ¥2.263 billion ($15.043 million) in operating profit, down nearly 25% from ¥3.003 billion ($19.961 million) in FY 2024, despite a 3.5% increase in net sales to ¥45.039 billion ($299.379 million) from ¥43.505 billion ($289.182). For the first quarter of its current fiscal year, Takara finished with an operating loss of ¥1.796 billion ($11.939 million), compared with a ¥1.634 billion ($10.862 million) operating loss in the year-ago quarter, even as net sales climbed nine percent year-over-year to ¥9.266 billion ($61.601 million) from ¥8.493 billion ($56.462 million).
Takara Bio USA is also a pioneer in retroviral gene delivery, having joined with its parent to bring to market in 2013 the clinical grade RetroNectin reagent, designed to enhance lentiviral- and retroviral-mediated gene transduction by aiding the colocalization of target cells and viral particles.
RetroNectin has been used in more than 68 protocols for gene therapy clinical trials at 44 institutions worldwide and has been cited in 2,810 peer-reviewed papers and reprints since 2021, according to PubMed.
Other commercial retroviral kits brought to market by Takara Bio USA include the Retro-X Universal Packaging System for generating pseudotyped retroviruses, and the Retro-X Tet-Express Inducible Expression System for controlled gene expression.
“With our new class of spatial technology complementing our single-cell platforms, and continued investment to make spatial biology accessible to more labs, Takara Bio USA is positioned at the forefront of revolutionizing single-cell spatial biology for de novo discovery,” Lou added.
