London Calling 2026: what’s coming (and why you should care)

London Calling is our annual event that celebrates the cutting-edge breakthroughs made possible by Oxford Nanopore sequencing. We will be bringing together some of the greatest minds from around the world 19–21 May at Old Billingsgate, London, and online.

As the final speakers are announced for 2026’s event, we are looking back at some of the standout talks from previous years and highlighting the sessions continuing their stories. From the first complete human X chromosome to the initial steps into clinical use, London Calling has always been more than a conference — it is where innovation meets inspiration.

1. First complete assembly of a human X chromosome reported by the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium
2. Supporting mRNA vaccine development with streamlined quality control (QC)
3. Sequencing 18,000 genomes a year
4. Nanopore sequencing has the potential to offer sensitive, precise diagnosis in resource-limited settings
5. Metagenomics could lead to 12-hour pathogen detection in sterile sites

First complete assembly of a human X chromosome reported by the T2T Consortium

Repetitive sequences in DNA are hard to decipher with short reads because the fragments can look very similar during assembly, without any clues about how they fit together. However, ultra-long reads from Oxford Nanopore avoid this challenge by providing richer data that makes it easier to piece together a complete genome.

Speaking at London Calling 2023, Ninin Cahyani explains the power of ultra-long nanopore reads to investigate repetitive regions.

In 2019, Karen Miga, UC Santa Cruz (USA) and co-founder of the T2T Consortium, rocked London Calling with her plenary talk sharing the first T2T assembly of a human X chromosome. Miga and her team also revealed ‘intriguing’¹ epigenetic patterns across the X chromosome, which can remain hidden, or be lost, with legacy sequencing methods that require complex library preparation — unlike nanopore sequencing.

This year, a number of researchers will be sharing how they are building on Karen’s ground-breaking work, including Alfredo Hidalgo-Miranda’s breakout discussing the development of an almost complete T2T assembly of a Mexican Mestizo genome using long and ultra-long Oxford Nanopore sequencing. In the field of cancer, Eleanor Woodward will be discussing how T2T assemblies have led to developments in paediatrics.

Supporting mRNA vaccine development with streamlined QC

mRNA therapeutics arrived onto the scene as demand for COVID-19 vaccines soared, but more than half the cost and time needed to develop a vaccine can be spent on QC². Direct RNA sequencing, which is only possible with the any length reads generated from nanopore sequencing, has the potential to cut this down. This could streamline routine testing, batch failure investigation, and continuous process improvement.

In 2024, Helen Gunter from the University of Queensland BASE mRNA facility (Australia) shared her experience accelerating the development of mRNA vaccines. Her work, including a custom Dorado basecalling model and EPI2ME pipeline, demonstrated the potential opportunities for direct RNA sequencing in the biopharma workflow, confirming mRNA vaccine sequence identity, integrity, and purity.

This explainer animation illustrates how Oxford Nanopore sequencing enables complete, end-to-end mRNA QC for research, development, and manufacturing workflows.

This year, we’re delighted to be welcoming Roy Williams, Aspen Neuroscience (United States), whose plenary session will explore how nanopore sequencing has supported Aspen’s development of a personalised cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Steven Verbruggen will also be sharing how OHMX.bio (Belgium) is developing long-read sequencing-based QC workflows for biologics.

Sequencing 18,000 genomes a year

The pangenome perspective that comes from sequencing a whole population has long been an appealing target for research, but building and handling diverse datasets has been challenging. High-throughput long-read sequencing could help analyse large numbers of genomes, creating more representative datasets, and providing richer insights.

In our most watched presentation from 2025, Natalie Kingston and Kathy Stirrups shared how the NIHR BioResource (United Kingdom) is trialling the use of long-read sequencing across three large cohort projects, analysing up to 18,000 genomes a year. From eating disorders to dementia, they revealed how analysis of structural variants and methylation could improve our understanding of these complex diseases.

Underscoring this translational potential, this year’s agenda features Tobias Rausch, who will be sharing the latest updates from the 1000 Genomes Project, explaining how Oxford Nanopore technology is helping resolve structural variants at the population scale and in cancer. Adam Giess will be presenting the journey Genomics England (United Kingdom) has taken towards embracing long-read sequencing, from pilots through to large cohort studies across multiple sites.

Matt Brown from Genomics England discusses how nanopore sequencing is helping to improve rare disease and cancer identification.

Nanopore sequencing has the potential to offer sensitive, precise diagnosis in resource-limited settings

Gene expression profiling (GEP) has emerged as a potential approach to diagnosing cancer, but there are very few studies comparing it to the standard methods, such as flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and karyotyping. In 2025, Javeria Aijaz, Indus Hospital & Health Network (Pakistan) found that, in a study of over 360 patients, 95% of paediatric leukaemia specimens were correctly called when using GEP.

In 2026, she will be returning to London Calling to showcase how accurate detection thresholds have been established for GEP, sharing data from over 650 patients with paediatric leukaemia. Further validating nanopore technology in the screening space, Arnfinnur Kallsberg, Faroese Health Authority (Faroe Islands) will sharing how nanopore sequencing could complement newborn screening programs and help identify inherited disorders. Mariana Bisarro dos Reis will be discussing a proof-of-concept project from Brazil where nanopore sequencing is being used to investigate the microbiome as a possible biomarker for colorectal cancer screening.

Metagenomics could lead to 12-hour pathogen detection in sterile sites

Despite advances in infection control protocol and medicines, infection remains a key risk in many medical settings, with healthcare-associated infections in the UK on the increase³. Metagenomic sequencing could be a powerful tool against infection, identifying the pathogen, its abundance, and any potential antimicrobial resistance in one go.

In 2025, Judith Breuer, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (United Kingdom), presented the first 5–6 months of a trial into routine metagenomics in intensive care. Her results demonstrated that results could be delivered in 12 hours and impacted clinical care in over 40% of the cases in the trial.

Rahul Batra discusses how nanopore sequencing is enabling faster, more cost-effective pathogen surveillance in hospital settings.

On the back of this work demonstrating the promising clinical potential for this technique, this year’s agenda features a breakout dedicated to metagenomics. Lara Urban, University of Zurich (Switzerland), will present research into metagenomic surveillance by nanopore sequencing. Kamil Khanipov, The University of Texas Medical Branch (United States), will share his experience of developing a bioaerosol metagenomic repository for environmental health research.

From the other site of the world, Robert A. Edwards, Flinders University (Australia), will be discussing the deployment of a rapid response pipeline for paediatric respiratory infections in regional, rural, and remote Australian communities.

Secure your spot at London Calling 2026

Onsite tickets for this year’s event are still available. If you’ve been inspired by what you’ve read here, you can purchase a ticket, and read the full agenda, on the London Calling website.

Learn, engage, and be part of something bigger at London Calling 2026.