The life science instrumentation (LSI) market is the largest instrument market and serves the field with a number of technologies. Many life science instruments support key initiatives in personalized medicine and gene editing methods (i.e., CRISPR). LSI accounts for roughly a quarter of the total analytical instruments industry and is grouped into 13 product segments. In 2015, the LSI market increased 2.3%, with demand exceeding $12 billion. The 2016 forecast calls for growth to accelerate slightly so that total demand will increase 3.1%, approaching $12.5 billion.

While sales of initial systems are important, the majority of market demand comes from the aftermarket: consumables, reagents, kits, etc. make up nearly two-thirds of the LSI market. Aftermarket and service revenues will both increase slightly in 2016, more rapidly than initial systems, fueled by strong growth in Asia-Pacific.

The public sector comprises academic, nonprofit and government research laboratories, representing nearly half of the LSI market. Meanwhile, industrial laboratories in pharmaceutical and biotechnology settings are also making use of these techniques for their own research goals. There is also significant demand from clinical laboratories and the food & agriculture industry.

The LSI product segment with the greatest growth potential is sequencing, for which demand is being boosted by the propagation of NGS, which has applications in both the public and private sectors. Sequencing is now the largest LSI product segment, and growth is forecast at 8.4% for 2016. Illumina and Thermo Fisher Scientific are the major players.

The next largest segments of the LSI market are PCR and nucleic acid–preparation & cell separation technologies. Unlike sequencing, these techniques are forecast to achieve only low single-digit growth for 2016. Thermo is a market leader in both technologies, while Bio-Rad Laboratories and QIAGEN are also strong competitors in the PCR and nucleic acid–preparation markets, respectively.

Other top LSI vendors include Becton, Dickinson, which leads the flow cytometry market, and GE Healthcare Life Sciences, which participates in many product segments.

Patch clamp and electrophysiology instrumentation is another high-growth niche within the LSI area. Although this market represents only about 1% of LSI revenues, growth is forecast at 6.4% for the year. While academia remains the major end-user segment, demand is rapidly shifting into industrial pharmaceutical labs, helping to drive market expansion. This trend toward cell-based technologies is also promoting the high-content analysis/imaging product segment. In 2016, growth for these instruments is forecast at 4.7%. Molecular Devices (Danaher) is an important player in both product segments.

Demand for microarray technology makes up just over 7% of the LSI market. Growth has been hampered by competing technologies, such as NGS, but the market is still forecast to achieve modest growth of 1.9% in 2016. The 2015 market leaders in microarrays were Affymetrix and Illumina, the form of which is slated to be acquired by Thermo (see page 2), marking Thermo’s entrance into a new market.