Oxford Nanopore Technologies

U.K.-based nanopore sequencing company

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc

Company type| Public limited company

Traded as

| LSE: ONT
ISIN| GB00BP6S8Z30
Industry| Nanopore sequencing
Founded| 2005; 20 years ago (2005)
Founders|

* Hagan Bayley
* Gordon Sanghera
* Spike Willcocks

Headquarters|

Oxford Science Park, Oxford

United Kingdom

Key people

* Duncan Tatton-Brown (Chair)
* Gordon Sanghera (CEO)

Revenue|  £183.2 million (2024)[1]

Operating income

|  £(152.3) million (2024)[1]

Net income

|  £(146.2) million (2024)[1]
Website| nanoporetech.com

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][4] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.[5]

## History

[edit]

The company was founded in 2005 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford by Hagan Bayley,[6] Gordon Sanghera, and Spike Willcocks, with seed funding from the IP Group.[7] The company made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on 30 September 2021, under the ticker ONT.[8]

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).[9] The company stated in a webcast that R9 is designed to improve error rates and yield.[10]

American astronaut Kate Rubins with a MinION sequencer on the ISS in August 2016.

In July 2016, a MinION nanopore sequencer was included on the ninth NASA/SpaceX commercial cargo resupply services mission to the International Space Station.[11] The aim of the mission was to provide proof of concept for the MinION's functionality in a microgravity environment.[12] During the mission, ISS crew members successfully sequenced DNA from bacteria, bacteriophage and rodents from samples prepared on Earth.[13] 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.[14]

## Products

[edit]

Top view of a closed Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION sequencer showing how it is small enough to be held in one hand

The main products of Oxford Nanopore are:

* MinION:[3][15][16] this harmonica-sized portable protein nanopore sequencing USB device has been commercially available since May 2015[17] after having been launched initially through an early access program, the MinION Access Program (MAP).[18]
* GridION X5: this desktop device has been commercially available since March 2017.[19] The device processes up to five MinION Flow Cells and enables generation of up to 100 Gb of data per run.[20]
* PromethION: this desktop, high throughput device will be available through an access program[21] that opened for registration in July 2015. The device contains channels for 144,000 nanopores (in comparison to MinION’s 512).[22]
* VolTRAX: this device is designed for automated library preparation so that users do not need a laboratory or lab skills to run the device.[23] Registration for the early access program was opened in October 2016.[24]
* Metrichor: this spinout company from Oxford Nanopore was set up to provide end to end solutions for biological analyses, using nanopore sensing technologies.[25][26]
* SmidgION: a mobile phone sequencer announced in May 2016, currently in development.[27]

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.[3][28]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "Annual Results for year ended 31 December 2024" (PDF). Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
2. ^ Eisenstein, M. (2012). "Oxford Nanopore announcement sets sequencing sector abuzz". Nature Biotechnology. 30 (4): 295–6\. doi:10.1038/nbt0412-295. PMID 22491260. S2CID 205267199.
3. ^ a b c Mikheyev, A. S.; Tin, M. M. Y. (2014). "A first look at the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer". Molecular Ecology Resources. 14 (6): 1097–102\. Bibcode:2014MolER..14.1097M. doi:10.1111/1755-0998.12324. PMID 25187008. S2CID 3674911.
4. ^ Loman, N. J.; Quinlan, A. R. (2014). "Poretools: A toolkit for analyzing nanopore sequence data". Bioinformatics. 30 (23): 3399–401\. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btu555. PMC 4296151. PMID 25143291.
5. ^ "FTSE UK Index Series Quarterly Review December 2024". FTSE Russell. 4 December 2024. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
6. ^ "BAYLEY, Prof. (John) Hagan (Pryce)". Who's Who. Vol. 2015 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. ^ "DNA sequencing: The hole story". The Economist. London. 16 October 2008. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
8. ^ "London Stock Exchange welcomes Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc to the Main Market". 11 October 2021.
9. ^ "VIB announces collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies on new DNA sequencing nanopore". Retrieved 9 May 2016.
10. ^ "No thanks, I've already got one". YouTube. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
11. ^ Ramsey, Sarah (21 June 2016). "Next SpaceX Commercial Cargo Launch Now No Earlier Than July 18". Retrieved 25 July 2016.
12. ^ "Sequencing DNA in Space - SpaceRef". spaceref.com. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
13. ^ Rainey, Kristine (29 August 2016). "First DNA Sequencing in Space a Game Changer". NASA. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
14. ^ 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. (10 December 2015). "Nanopore Sequencing in Microgravity". bioRxiv 10.1101/032342.
15. ^ Check Hayden, E. (2014). "Data from pocket-sized genome sequencer unveiled". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2014.14724.
16. ^ Check Hayden, E. (2015). "Pint-sized DNA sequencer impresses first users". Nature. 521 (7550): 15–6\. Bibcode:2015Natur.521...15C. doi:10.1038/521015a. PMID 25951262.
17. ^ "IP Group PLC – Portfolio company Oxford Nanopore announces £70m fundraising – IP Group PLC". Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
18. ^ Loman, Nicholas J; Watson, Mick (2015). "Successful test launch for nanopore sequencing". Nature Methods. 12 (4): 303–304\. doi:10.1038/nmeth.3327. ISSN 1548-7091. PMID 25825834. S2CID 5604121.
19. ^ "Oxford Nanopore Launches GridIon X5 Nanopore Sequencer, Details Product Improvements". GenomeWeb. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
20. ^ "GridION X5". nanoporetech.com. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
21. ^ "Community - Oxford Nanopore Technologies". Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
22. ^ "Specifications - Community - Oxford Nanopore Technologies". Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
23. ^ "Oxford Nanopore CTO Clive Brown's Talk at London Calling: MinION ASIC, volTRAX, promethION". Next Gen Seek. 14 May 2015.
24. ^ "VolTRAX". nanoporetech.com. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
25. ^ "Oxford Nanopore: we want to create the internet of living things". Wired UK.
26. ^ "Metrichor". metrichor.com. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
27. ^ "SmidgION - Products & services - Oxford Nanopore Technologies". www2.nanoporetech.com. Archived from the original on 23 August 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
28. ^ Check Hayden, Erika (2012). "Nanopore genome sequencer makes its debut". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10051. ISSN 1744-7933.

## External links

[edit]

* Oxford Nanopore Technologies Website

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