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Description of the Business	12 Months Ended
Description of the Business	Dec. 31, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Description of the Business	Description of the Business NanoString Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) was incorporated in the state of Delaware on June 20, 2003. The Company’s headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington. The Company’s proprietary optical barcoding chemistry enables direct detection, identification and quantification of individual target molecules in a biological sample by attaching a unique color coded fluorescent reporter to each target molecule of interest. The Company currently markets and sells two platforms based on its proprietary technology, its nCounter Analysis System and its GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler, or GeoMx DSP system, both consisting of instruments and consumables, to academic, government, biopharmaceutical and clinical laboratory customers. The Company has incurred losses to date and expects to incur additional losses for the foreseeable future. The Company continues to invest the majority of its resources in the development and growth of its business, including significant investments in new product development and sales and marketing efforts. The Company’s activities have been financed to date primarily through the sale of equity securities and incurrence of indebtedness and cash received by the Company pursuant to certain product development collaborations.