Oxford NanoLabs Ltd secures £10m investment

Note: Oxford NanoLabs changed its name to Oxford Nanopore Technologies in May 2008.

28 March 2008, Oxford, UK. Oxford NanoLabs Ltd announces that it has secured £10m ($20.1m) in new investment from institutional and private investors. The Company is developing nanopore technology for use in DNA sequencing. Nanopore technology has the potential to offer significant advantages in cost and speed over existing technologies, meeting an expanding need for DNA analysis.

Dr Gordon Sanghera, CEO said: "Oxford NanoLabs has made strong progress in the past year towards our goal of developing a nanopore-based DNA sequencing system. This investment will enable the acceleration of our research and development programme. We are proud to have the support of excellent investors, who share our vision of nanopores as a disruptive technology that would enable a new era of genomics."

In contrast to current technologies, nanopore-based DNA analysis has the potential to measure single molecules without the need for chemical labels, therefore avoiding the use of expensive reagents and time-consuming amplification steps. Direct electrical measurement of the DNA sequence allows simpler instrumentation and data processing. These advantages mean that nanopore technology is positioned to deliver a step-change in cost and power of DNA analysis tools.