This post has been updated.

Seattle bioinformatics company NanoString Technologies has raised $20 million in a Series D investment round.

New investors GE, BioMed Ventures and former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer joined the round, with participation from existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Clarus Ventures and OVP Venture Partners.

The new round brings total funding for the company up to about $67 million.

Founded in 2003, NanoString develops life science tools that help researchers analyze gene patterns that could offer clues about how diseases form. Its core technology is its nCounter Analysis System, which allows researchers to cost-effectively identify a number of genes at once.

NanoString says it will use the funding to expand its life science tools business and continue work on its breast cancer assay, which examines a patient's tumor tissue at a molecular level.

“This financing has brought both growth capital and a constellation of healthcare leaders into NanoString’s orbit,” said NanoString CEO Brad Gray in a statement. “We look forward to applying these new funds and relationships to growing the installed base for our nCounter research platform, and in parallel, advancing our molecular diagnostics program through clinical development and regulatory approval.”

Update: NanoString isn't disclosing information about its customer base, but Gray said that its technology is used primarily in academic medical centers or pharmaceutical biotechnology. Approximately 60 percent of NanoString's customers are cancer researchers, he said.

Though the technology is mainly used for medical research, it has also been used by a few clients outside the biotech realm, including one in the agricultural sciences and one that works in chemical production, said Gray.

The technology allows researchers to look at whole networks of genes -- up to 800 genes -- at one time using a very simple system, he said. Researchers can use the information gleaned to understand the genetics of a tumor, by comparing healthy tissue with diseased tissue, understand how aggressive a tumor is, and determine which drugs it's most likely to respond to.

NanoString is seeking regulatory approval for its breast cancer assay, both in the U.S. and in Europe. As the regulatory process moves more swiftly in Europe, Gray said he expects to get the diagnositc on the market in Europe first. The company is presenting the results from the first clinical study on the assay on Dec. 8 at the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

Gray also said NanoString has expanded its headcount over the last year, and now has roughly 90 employees.