Omics Empower Launches Xenium, Boosting Hong Kong's Biotech Clout

HONG KONG – February 13, 2026 – By Anthony Hughes

Global life science service provider Omics Empower has significantly enhanced the research capabilities within Hong Kong's burgeoning biotechnology sector by launching advanced Xenium™ In Situ Spatial Transcriptomics services. The new offering, available at its Hong Kong Science Park laboratory, provides researchers with an unprecedented view into the cellular architecture of disease, positioning the city as a key hub for cutting-edge biomedical research in the Asia-Pacific.

The announcement on February 13, 2026, marks a pivotal expansion for the company’s Hong Kong facility, which opened in July 2025. By becoming the second laboratory in the city to operate the powerful Xenium platform from 10x Genomics, Omics Empower is democratizing access to technology that is revolutionizing fields like oncology, neuroscience, and immunology. This move not only strengthens Hong Kong's research infrastructure but also promises to accelerate scientific discovery across the region.

A Strategic Bet on Hong Kong's Biotech Future

The decision to deploy this state-of-the-art technology in Hong Kong is a calculated move that aligns with the city's ambitious goal of becoming a global life science and innovation powerhouse. Situated in the Hong Kong Science Park, a nexus of R&D and tech innovation, Omics Empower is tapping into a vibrant ecosystem supported by substantial government investment and a world-class academic and clinical research foundation.

Hong Kong is aggressively shedding its image as a purely financial center, with initiatives like the InnoLife Healthtech Hub and increased R&D funding aimed at fostering a robust biotech industry. The Asia-Pacific region is currently the fastest-growing market for spatial genomics, driven by national precision medicine initiatives and rising R&D spending by biopharmaceutical companies. By establishing local capabilities, service providers like Omics Empower are eliminating critical bottlenecks for researchers.

Previously, scientists in the region often faced logistical hurdles, shipping sensitive biological samples across borders, which risked compromising sample integrity. Faster, local processing is crucial for preserving the delicate RNA molecules and cell viability essential for high-quality spatial transcriptomics data. The presence of these advanced services locally is expected to foster closer collaboration between academic institutions, such as the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the burgeoning biotech industry.

A Multi-Platform Arsenal for Spatial Biology

What sets Omics Empower's strategy apart is its comprehensive, multi-platform approach to spatial biology. The introduction of Xenium complements the laboratory's existing services, which include 10x Genomics' Visium platform and Stereo-seq, a technology developed by BGI Group. This diverse toolkit allows researchers to select the most appropriate technology for their specific scientific questions, budget, and sample types.

• Xenium™ In Situ: This platform excels at high-resolution, targeted analysis. Using advanced imaging techniques, it directly detects and quantifies hundreds to thousands of specific RNA molecules in situ, or within their native tissue context, at single-cell and even subcellular levels. This is ideal for validating findings, examining specific cellular interactions in the tumor microenvironment, or mapping neural circuits with high precision. Its compatibility with formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues—the standard for clinical samples—makes it a powerful tool for translational research.

• Visium Spatial Gene Expression: As a discovery-focused tool, Visium provides a whole-transcriptome view of a tissue section. While its resolution is typically at the level of small cell groups rather than individual cells, it allows researchers to explore gene expression patterns across an entire tissue slice without prior assumptions, making it perfect for initial exploratory studies.

• Stereo-seq: This technology pushes the boundaries of scale and resolution, offering nanometer-level spatial information across large tissue areas with whole-transcriptome coverage. It is suited for creating comprehensive, high-definition atlases of complex organs or tissues.

By offering this trio of leading technologies, Omics Empower positions itself not just as a service provider but as a strategic partner to research teams, guiding them from broad, discovery-based profiling to high-resolution, hypothesis-driven validation. This integrated approach ensures that scientific investigations can be pursued from every angle, maximizing the potential for groundbreaking discoveries.

Unlocking the Cellular Mysteries of Disease

The ultimate promise of these advanced spatial transcriptomics technologies lies in their ability to transform our understanding of complex diseases. By mapping gene expression within the intact architecture of a tissue, scientists can unravel the intricate cellular conversations that drive disease progression, treatment resistance, and immune responses.

In oncology, researchers can use Xenium to visualize the spatial relationships between tumor cells and infiltrating immune cells, identifying biomarkers that could predict a patient's response to immunotherapy. In neuroscience, it can help map the molecular changes in specific neuron types in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. For immunology, it offers a way to see precisely where and how immune cells are activated during infection or in autoimmune disorders.

This ability to link molecular data with spatial context is a fundamental shift from traditional methods that required researchers to dissociate tissues, losing all information about the original cellular neighborhood. The high-resolution data generated by platforms like Xenium is a critical step toward developing more targeted therapies and realizing the vision of personalized medicine.

With its expanded capabilities and strategic position in Hong Kong, Omics Empower is not just adding a new service; it is providing a vital catalyst for the entire Asia-Pacific life science community. The local access to this powerful suite of tools is poised to accelerate the journey from basic biological questions to tangible clinical applications that could one day change the landscape of medicine.