It took some time. But NanoString Technologies has attracted a whopping  $30 million -- one of the largest venture capital deals in Washington state this year. The financing was led by Clarus Ventures of Boston, with OVP Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participating.

With this round, total financing in the company now stands at about $48 million.

Interim CEO Wayne Burns said the company has been seeking funds for "quite awhile." And while he described the venture financing process as "difficult," Burns said things heated up after NanoString customers provided a ringing endorsement of the technology to Clarus.

"We had some customers that spoke to the VC and were very enamored with the technical results that they were getting from the system, and that was really a catalyst," said Burns, who declined to discuss valuation terms.

With the new cash, which will be provided in two tranches, NanoString plans to boost hiring from 43 workers to as many as 60 or 70 this year, Burns said. It also plans to recruit a CEO following the departure of H. Perry Fell, who remains chairman of the board.

The company plans to use some of the funds to explore opportunities outside the gene expression arena, though Burns didn't elaborate on those.

Founded in the labs of noted scientist Leroy Hood, NanoString has developed tools to help researchers more cost effectively look at patterns in genes that could lead to certain clues on how diseases form. The core technology -- which consists of an imager and other instruments at a cost of as much as $250,000  -- allows researchers to identify a number of genes at once.

"In a single sample, we can look at up to 550 genes and do it with high sensitivity," said Vice President of Marketing Lianne McLean. That contrasts with other systems which can only look at one gene per sample with high accuracy, McLean said. Competitors include Life Technologies -- formed through the merger of Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen -- and Affymetrix.

Burns declined to say how many customers they have, though he said "we are meeting our plan." It has installed systems in Europe, Japan and North America, with customers such as the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Regulus Therapeutics; and The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at Miami University.

The NanoString technology is also being used outside of the biotechnology realm, specifically in agricultural sciences and alternative energy. In those cases, Burns said that researchers are using the tools to determine why plants may grow larger or produce greater yields.

As part of the funding round, Clarus Managing Director Nicholas Galakatos will join the board. In a press release, he said the scientific community has enthusiastically embraced the products.

“We believe that NanoString Technologies has the best-in-class platform for expression profiling," he said.