Xenium by 10x Genomics: status and timeline

Xenium

Establish Xenium as the standard spatial transcriptomics instrument by scaling multiplexing to 5,000-plex and reducing cost for clinical adoption.

DeployStage 4 of 5

Spatial genomics leader: 14,500 reactions 2025 (+34%); now RNA+protein co-detection; 5K-plex planned.

Updated Q4 2025Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · 5,000-plex gene panels planned

Xenium platform launched2022Complete.
Xenium RNA capability established2023Complete.
14,500 reactions performed in 2025; +34% YoY growth2025Complete.
Xenium Protein launched; enables RNA+protein co-detectionAug 2025Complete.
5,000-plex gene panels plannedTarget 2026Current milestone.
Double-digit consumables growth expected in 2026Target 2026Not yet reached.

Most important updates

Upcoming

20265,000-plex gene panels planned (next)
2026Double-digit consumables growth expected in 2026

Current obstacles

Multiplexing cost scales nonlinearlyMaintaining signal-to-noise as gene panels grow is the central engineering challenge.
Clinical automation and costClinical adoption needs lower cost per test and pathology lab integration.

Physics limits

Spatial resolution vs. coverage trade-offXenium achieves subcellular resolution but is limited to a tissue section (~1 mm² per slide); whole-organ profiling requires many experiments and integration across sections.
mRNA stability in fixed tissueRNA degrades after tissue fixation; freshness of tissue and preservation chemistry determine the quality of detected transcripts, limiting retrospective studies.

How it works

4 parts

Tissue section preparation

Preserve architecture

Tissue is mounted on Xenium slides, preserving 3D context and cell-cell interactions.

Multiplexed hybridization

Sequential gene detection

Fluorescent probes hybridize to target mRNAs; each gene gets a unique spectral barcode.

Protein detection

Simultaneous protein measurement

Antibodies detect protein on the same slide for RNA-protein co-detection.

Image analysis

Subcellular maps

Machine learning identifies cells and their gene/protein expression, overlaid on tissue.

Spec sheet

Spec	Xenium
Xenium reactions in 2025	14,500^R (reported)
Year-over-year growth (2025)	34%^R (reported)
Planned maximum gene panel (2026)	5,000 genes^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

2 updates

Q4 2025

Major: 10x Genomics reports 14,500 Xenium reactions in 2025 (+34% YoY); launches Xenium Protein for simultaneous RNA and protein detectionFilingHardware

Aug 2025

Major: 10x Genomics launches Xenium Protein for multimodal RNA and protein co-detectionPressHardware

About 10x Genomics

The team behind Xenium

10x Genomics

Spatial genomics, single-cell sequencing, Xenium

10x Genomics makes microfluidics platforms for single-cell genomics: Chromium for single-cell RNA sequencing and Xenium for spatial in-situ analysis mapping gene activity in intact tissue.

Chromium platform leads single-cell genomics with 1 billion+ cells analyzed to date.
Xenium spatial platform: 14,500 reactions in 2025 (+34% YoY); launched RNA+protein co-detection.
Spatial consumables drove double-digit growth in 2025, entirely from Xenium expansion.

10xgenomics.com (opens 10xgenomics.com)Company profile →

Founded: 201214 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Public
Valuation: public
Last round: IPO · $449M16 Sep 2019
Works in: BiotechGenomics & sequencing
Coverage: 1 program · 2 updateslatest 1 Oct 2025checked 11 Oct
Partners: UC Irvine (opens uci.edu)
Suppliers: Illumina (opens illumina.com)
People: Serge Saxonov (opens 10xgenomics.com)Co-founder & CEOBen Hindson (opens 10xgenomics.com)Co-founder, President & Chief Scientific OfficerKevin Ness (opens 10xgenomics.com)Co-founder

Spec

Xenium

Xenium reactions in 2025

14,500^R (reported)

Year-over-year growth (2025)

34%^R (reported)

Planned maximum gene panel (2026)

5,000 genes^R (reported)