Luminex Corporation (LMNX)

Luminex Corporation developed and sold instruments and assays for life science research and clinical diagnostics. Its best-known technology, xMAP, used color-coded microscopic beads to test for many different targets in a single small sample, an approach known as multiplexing. The company also offered flow cytometry and imaging systems and sample-to-answer molecular testing platforms used by hospital laboratories to detect infectious diseases.

The company was founded in Austin, Texas in the mid-1990s and went public on NASDAQ in 2000 under the symbol LMNX. Much of its business came from licensing xMAP to partner companies that built their own test kits on the platform, alongside sales of its own instruments and consumables.

Luminex broadened its clinical business through acquisitions, including the 2016 purchase of Nanosphere, maker of the Verigene system for rapid detection of bacterial and viral infections, and later additions in flow cytometry. During the COVID-19 pandemic demand for its respiratory and SARS-CoV-2 testing products rose, lifting revenue in 2020.

In April 2021 DiaSorin S.p.A., an Italian maker of immunodiagnostic and molecular tests, agreed to buy Luminex for $37 per share in cash. Shareholders approved the deal, and DiaSorin announced its completion on July 14, 2021, giving the transaction a total equity value of about $1.8 billion. Luminex shares were removed from NASDAQ, and its multiplexing business became part of DiaSorin's research and clinical diagnostics operations.