HuluFISH was initially an acronym for Helix-stabilized, unbiased and ligated uni/multi-color probe for FISH. The name was also inspired from a famous Chinese cartoon named Hulu Brothers (húlú is Calabash in Chinese), where each of the seven protagonists was transformed from a calabash with a distinct rainbow color, much like the base color in HuluFISH multiplexing.
Calabash fruits on a winding vine resemble fluorophores on a helical HuluFISH probe. húlú bears the image of life in Chinese culture: it is a container for elixir and a symbol for reproduction, coinciding with the intended use of HuluFISH in medicine and life science.
