Oxford Nanopore Technologies Explained

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc
Type:	Public limited company
Industry:	Nanopore sequencing
Location City:	Oxford Science Park, Oxford
Location Country:	United Kingdom
Revenue:	£169.7 million (2023)^[1]
Operating Income:	£(168.7) million (2023)
Net Income:	£(154.5) million (2023)

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc is a UK-based company which develops and sells nanopore sequencing products (including the portable DNA sequencer, MinION) for the direct, electronic analysis of single molecules.^{[2] [3]}

History

The company was founded in 2005 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford by Hagan Bayley, Gordon Sanghera, and Spike Willcocks, with seed funding from the IP Group.^[4] The company made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on 30 September 2021, under the ticker ONT.^[5]

In March 2016 the company announced a chemistry upgrade to its nanopore sequencing product 'R9', using a protein nanopore in collaboration with the laboratory of Han Remaut (VIB/Vrije Universiteit Brussel).^[6] The company stated in a webcast that R9 is designed to improve error rates and yield.^[7]

In July 2016, a MinION nanopore sequencer was included on the ninth NASA/SpaceX commercial cargo resupply services mission to the International Space Station.^[8] The aim of the mission was to provide proof of concept for the MinION's functionality in a microgravity environment.^[9] During the mission, ISS crew members successfully sequenced DNA from bacteria, bacteriophage and rodents from samples prepared on Earth.^[10] Maintaining the MinION device as a research facility on the space station holds the potential to support a number of additional science investigations, any of which could have Earth based applications.^[11]

Products

The main products of Oxford Nanopore are:

• MinION:^{[12] [13] [14]} this harmonica-sized portable protein nanopore sequencing USB device has been commercially available since May 2015^[15] after having been launched initially through an early access program, the MinION Access Program (MAP).^[16]
• GridION X5: this desktop device has been commercially available since March 2017.^[17] The device processes up to five MinION Flow Cells and enables generation of up to 100 Gb of data per run.^[18]
• PromethION: this desktop, high throughput device will be available through an access program^[19] that opened for registration in July 2015. The device contains channels for 144,000 nanopores (in comparison to MinION’s 512).^[20]
• VolTRAX: this device is designed for automated sample preparation so that users do not need a laboratory or lab skills to run the device.^[21] Registration for the early access program was opened in October 2016.^[22]
• Metrichor: this spinout company from Oxford Nanopore was set up to provide end to end solutions for biological analyses, using nanopore sensing technologies.^{[23] [24]}
• SmidgION: a mobile phone sequencer announced in May 2016, currently in development.^[25]

These products are intended to be used for the analysis of DNA, RNA, proteins and small molecules with a range of applications in personalized medicine, crop science, and scientific research.^{[12] [26]}

External links

• Oxford Nanopore Technologies Website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Annual Results for year ended 31 December 2023 . Oxford Nanopore Technologies. 4 September 2024.
2. 10.1038/nbt0412-295. 22491260. Oxford Nanopore announcement sets sequencing sector abuzz. Nature Biotechnology. 30. 4. 295–6. 2012. Eisenstein . M. . 205267199.
3. 25143291. 2014. Loman. N. J.. Poretools: A toolkit for analyzing nanopore sequence data. Bioinformatics. 30. 23. 3399–401. Quinlan. A. R.. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btu555 . 4296151.
4. News: 2008-10-16 . DNA sequencing: The hole story . The Economist . London . 2014-10-19.
5. Web site: London Stock Exchange welcomes Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc to the Main Market . 2021-10-11.
6. Web site: VIB announces collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies on new DNA sequencing nanopore . 2016-05-09 .
7. Web site: No thanks, I've already got one . YouTube. 2016-05-09 .
8. Web site: Next SpaceX Commercial Cargo Launch Now No Earlier Than July 18. Ramsey. Sarah. 2016-06-21. 2016-07-25.
9. Web site: Sequencing DNA in Space - SpaceRef. spaceref.com. 2016-07-25.
10. News: First DNA Sequencing in Space a Game Changer. Rainey. Kristine. 2016-08-29. NASA. 2016-10-17.
11. McIntyre. Alexa B. R.. Rizzardi. Lindsay. Yu. Angela M.. Rosen. Gail L.. Alexander. Noah. Botkin. Douglas J.. John. Kristen K.. Castro-Wallace. Sarah L.. Burton. Aaron S.. 2015-12-10. Nanopore Sequencing in Microgravity. 10.1101/032342.
12. 25187008. 2014. Mikheyev. A. S.. A first look at the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer. Molecular Ecology Resources. 14. 6. 1097–102. Tin. M. M. Y.. 10.1111/1755-0998.12324. 3674911.
13. 10.1038/nature.2014.14724. Data from pocket-sized genome sequencer unveiled. Nature. 2014. Check Hayden . E. . free.
14. 10.1038/521015a. Pint-sized DNA sequencer impresses first users. Nature. 521. 7550. 15–6. 2015. Check Hayden . E.. 25951262. 2015Natur.521...15C. free.
15. Web site: IP Group PLC – Portfolio company Oxford Nanopore announces £70m fundraising – IP Group PLC . November 20, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151121024012/http://www.ipgroupplc.com/media-centre/ip-group-news/2015/2015-07-21.aspx . November 21, 2015 .
16. Loman. Nicholas J. Watson. Mick. Successful test launch for nanopore sequencing. Nature Methods. 12. 4. 2015. 303–304. 1548-7091. 10.1038/nmeth.3327. 25825834. 5604121.
17. News: Oxford Nanopore Launches GridIon X5 Nanopore Sequencer, Details Product Improvements. GenomeWeb. 2017-07-06. en.
18. Web site: GridION X5. nanoporetech.com. en. 2017-07-06.
19. Web site: Community - Oxford Nanopore Technologies. 2015-06-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20150627171625/https://nanoporetech.com/community/promethion-access-programme. 2015-06-27. dead.
20. Web site: Specifications - Community - Oxford Nanopore Technologies. 2015-11-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20160601141421/https://www.nanoporetech.com/community/specifications. 2016-06-01. dead.
21. Web site: Oxford Nanopore CTO Clive Brown's Talk at London Calling: MinION ASIC, volTRAX, promethION. Next Gen Seek. 14 May 2015.
22. Web site: VolTRAX. nanoporetech.com. 2016-10-17.
23. Oxford Nanopore: we want to create the internet of living things. Wired UK.
24. Web site: Metrichor. metrichor.com. 2016-08-17.
25. Web site: SmidgION - Products & services - Oxford Nanopore Technologies. www2.nanoporetech.com. 2016-08-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20160823022022/https://www2.nanoporetech.com/products-services/smidgion. 2016-08-23. dead.
26. Check Hayden. Erika. Nanopore genome sequencer makes its debut. Nature. 2012. 1744-7933. 10.1038/nature.2012.10051. free.