10x Genomics announced the acquisition of Scale Biosciences for $30 million upfront plus milestones, aiming to advance its Chromium single-cell platform through innovative combinatorial indexing and molecular barcoding technologies. The deal brings foundational inventions that enable higher scale, affordability, and routine use of single-cell experiments. Scale’s founders, including prominent academic scientists, will join 10x as advisors. This strategic move complements 10x’s existing droplet-based approaches and is intended to support large-scale single-cell research such as the 100 Million Cell Challenge.