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Oxford Nanopore makes a novel generation of DNA/RNA sequencing technology that provides rich data, is fast, accessible and easy to use. Our goal is to disrupt the way that biological analyses are currently performed, and open up new applications that have a profound, positive impact on society.

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Who we are

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc was founded in 2005 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford. The company now employs more than 1000 employees from multiple disciplines including nanopore science, molecular biology and applications, informatics, engineering, electronics, manufacturing and commercialisation. The management team, led by CEO Dr Gordon Sanghera, has a track record of delivering disruptive technologies to the market.

Company history

Where we are

Oxford Nanopore is a public company, headquartered at the Oxford Science Park outside Oxford, UK, with satellite offices in Cambridge (UK), New York, Cambridge, San Francisco (US), Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, and a broader commercial presence that includes Japan, Germany, France and India. The company sells to more than 120 countries and is in a period of rapid growth.

In the summer of 2019, we opened a new high-tech manufacturing facility in Oxford.

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The technology

Oxford Nanopore has developed a new generation of DNA/RNA sequencing technology. It is the only sequencing technology that offers real-time analysis (for rapid insights), in fully scalable formats from pocket to population scale, that can analyse native DNA or RNA and sequence any length of fragment to achieve short to ultra-long read lengths.

Small formats such as Flongle address the need for on-demand, rapid, smaller tests or experiments, and can be used in labs or in the field. The pocket-sized MinION is a powerful and portable sequencing device that can deliver high volumes of long read sequence data. The benchtop GridION can run up to five MinION Flow Cells at a time, on-demand, for larger genomics projects. PromethION is the largest format for nanopore sequencing, designed to offer on-demand use of up to 48 Flow Cells - capable of delivering more than 10 Tb of sequence data in a full run, and is now being used in population-scale sequencing projects. The palm sized PromethION 2 makes high-output nanopore sequencing broadly accessible

To make the technology suitable for any user, we focus on increasing ease of use and automation. Nanopore sequencing offers easy and rapid preparation, including a ten minute library preparation kit. We also provide a range of analysis workflows.

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Why DNA/RNA?

DNA and RNA are molecules that are present in all living things. DNA contains an organism’s genetic code, the instructions for building and operating an organism. RNA is primarily a messenger molecule, carrying instructions from the DNA code to control the synthesis of proteins – the building blocks of organisms.

Sequencing is the process of identifying the order of ‘bases’ on a molecule of DNA or RNA. This is called a ‘sequence’.

This sequence data can answer a range of biological questions such as what is it? or Is it healthy or diseased?.

环境

这条河的微生物组成是如何变化的? 这属于哪一物种? 是否为濒危物种? 我们对这一领域的生物多样性有哪些了解?

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病原体和微生物学

这是什么病毒/细菌/真菌? 致病性由什么引起? 是否对抗菌药物耐药? 我们如何利用这些信息来预防或治疗它引起的疾病?

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全基因组测序

通过纳米孔长读长测序(已证实读长序列超过 4 Mb)生成并完成微生物、人类、动物和植物基因组的组装。

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癌症研究

导致这种癌症的遗传变化以及更广泛细胞途径中这些变化的机制是什么? 了解这些变化是否能影响治疗选择? 是否能根据这些知识开发新疗法?

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临床研究

我们如何使用测序数据来个性化医疗? 我们如何将测序数据整合到临床决策中? 人的基因组如何影响他们对疾病或感染的反应?

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Who needs DNA/RNA information?

scientific-research

Scientific research

Sequence data is used throughout scientific research, whether in university, government or industrial research groups, to help biologists answer a range of questions.

The majority of users of Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing technology are currently research scientists.

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Applied markets

Outside scientific research, DNA/RNA information can be used to support ‘real life’ decision making, whether that is in healthcare, industrial or other environments. Some of these sectors are regulated, such as in healthcare and food safety.

As well as providing devices for lab-based testing, Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing technology is uniquely deployable in distributed, near-s

Applied Markets

healthcare

Healthcare

  • Oxford Nanopore’s technology is currently being used in multiple external clinical research laboratories, for example to characterise infectious disease samples, to investigate tissue typing in advance of transplants, and to provide insights into reproductive health.

  • Nanopore technology is also highly suited to the development of diagnostic assays.

  • A broad range of clinical areas may potentially benefit from rapid genomic insights: What disease does this person have? What is the optimal treatment pathway for this person?

Industry

  • Is this food/water safe to sell/consume? Do we need to shut down our production line to clean it?
  • Can we optimise production of our livestock, fish or seafood?
  • Can we optimise biopharma biological production?
  • Can I perform real time surveillance of the organisms in this environment?
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Scientific Research

Genome Science

What is the structure and function of the human genome?

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Scientific Research

Pathogens / Microbiology

What is this virus/bacteria/fungus? What makes it pathogenic? Is it resistant to antimicrobial drugs? How could we use this information to prevent or treat the disease that it causes?

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Scientific Research

Environmental

How is the microbial composition of this ocean/glacier/lake changing? What is this species? Is it endangered? What can we understand about the biodiversity within this area?

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Scientific Research

Epidemiology

What is this pathogen? How is it changing? How is it being transmitted? At March 2021, approximately a quarter of the COVID-19 sequences in the GISAID platform were sequenced on a nanopore device.

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Scientific Research

Transcriptomics

How do different conditions impact which genes we use and when? What does this mean for human health.

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Scientific Research

Security

Is there a harmful pathogen here? What is the origin of the pathogen? Is this environment safe? What is this species? Is it being shipped illegally?

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Scientific Research

Human Genetics

How does variation between individuals influence their characteristics, disease risk or response to medication?

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Scientific Research

Clinical Research

How can we use sequence data to personalise medicine? How can we integrate sequence data into clinical decision making? How does a person’s genome influence how they may respond to a disease or an infection?

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Scientific Research

Plants / Crops

What are the differences between these tomato crops? How can we breed better varieties, that are more productive, long lasting or taste better? How can we apply this knowledge to a variety of plants from cereals to flowers?

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Scientific Research

Education

School and university students: Can I use sequencing as a fundamental tool to understand biology, data analysis, experimental design, and become a citizen scientist of the future?

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Scientific Research

Population-scale genomics

What can we learn about the characteristics and diversity of genomes of a specific population of people, and how can we apply this to improve the health of those people?

innovation

Innovation

With a best-in-class R&D team, Oxford Nanopore's innovation drive has delivered a novel generation of sequencing technology and surrounding, enabling technologies. We continue to invest heavily in innovation, to drive disruption of the scientific markets.

Supported by a broad patent portfolio generated by internal R&D and external collaborations, the Oxford Nanopore pipeline includes more than 2,600 patents and applications. The portfolio includes multiple generations of nanopore-based sensing technologies, including those based on both biological and solid-state nanopores.

Intellectual property

Oxford Nanopore’s technology has now been featured in more than 8,600 scientific publications.

You can find out more about the work of the nanopore community at our Resource Centre, and more detail about the research applications in our Applications area.

Anyone anywhere

Accessibility is central to our goal, and it is baked into everything we do, whether that is product design, pricing or how we support our customers.

In 2015, we chose to launch a device to the market that was accessible to any scientist. A MinION starter pack cost $1,000, could be shipped or used anywhere and was easy to use. A thriving community of scientists grew around the device, and these pioneering researchers continue to break boundaries, whether by sequencing in the Antarctic or characterising drug resistant tuberculosis in Madagascar.

Portable sequencing
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