Standard BioTools Inc. (NASDAQ: LAB) announced a partnership with Molecular Instruments that will integrate the company’s Hybridization Chain Reaction (HCR) imaging platform into its Hyperion Imaging System. The deal adds HCR Gold for simultaneous RNA and protein imaging and the HCR HiFi Encoder for direct protein encoding, allowing amplified detection with any primary antibody on the Hyperion platform.
The collaboration is a strategic response to recent financial pressure. In Q3 2025 Standard BioTools reported continuing‑operations revenue of $19.6 million, a 11 % decline year‑over‑year, and a gross margin of 48.5 % versus 54.9 % in Q3 2024. The partnership is intended to drive consumable sales, broaden the company’s multi‑omics portfolio, and strengthen its competitive position against larger players such as Thermo Fisher and Agilent.
Segment data show that consumables and services revenue fell, while instrument revenue was mixed. The new HCR‑enabled Hyperion platform is expected to lift consumable volumes by providing a higher‑throughput, higher‑sensitivity workflow that can be sold to the same customer base that currently purchases Hyperion instruments and reagents.
CEO Michael Egholm highlighted the partnership as part of a broader shift toward higher‑margin offerings. He said the company is “executing on integration, cost reductions, and a focus on scaling both organically and through strategic acquisitions.” The move also dovetails with the planned sale of SomaLogic to Illumina, which is expected to provide significant cash to fund inorganic growth.
The partnership positions Standard BioTools to capture a larger share of the growing spatial biology market, where demand for integrated, high‑throughput imaging solutions is accelerating. By combining HCR amplification with Hyperion’s high‑plex single‑cell profiling, the joint solution promises greater sensitivity and flexibility for researchers, potentially accelerating discovery and clinical translation while offsetting the company’s recent revenue decline and margin compression.
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