Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Last updated

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc
Type Public limited company
LSE:  ONT
ISIN GB00BP6S8Z30
Industry Nanopore sequencing
Founded2005;18 years ago (2005)
Founders
Headquarters,
Key people
  • Hagan Bayley [1]
  • Gordon Sanghera (CEO)
  • Clive Brown (CTO)
  • Spike Willcocks (CSO)
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]

Contents

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. [5] [6] The company made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on 30 September 2021, under the ticker ONT. [7]

Products

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

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] [39]

As of October 2016, over 3,000 MinIONs have been shipped. [40] PromethION has started to ship in early access. [28] In a paper published in November 2014, one of the MAP participants wrote, "The MinION is an exciting step in a new direction for single-molecule sequencing, though it will require dramatic decreases in error rates before it lives up to its promise.". [3] By August 2016, bioinformatician Jared Simpson noted that 99.96% consensus accuracy was generated using the nanopolish tool after raw accuracy had been improved with the new R9 nanopore. [41]

In July 2015, a group published on nanopore sequencing of an influenza genome, noting “A complete influenza virus genome was obtained that shared greater than 99% identity with sequence data obtained from the Illumina Miseq and traditional Sanger-sequencing. The laboratory infrastructure and computing resources used to perform this experiment on the MinION nanopore sequencer would be available in most molecular laboratories around the world. Using this system, the concept of portability, and thus sequencing influenza viruses in the clinic or field is now tenable.“ In a paper and accompanying editorial [42] published in October 2015, [43] a group of MinION users wrote, “At the time of this writing, around a dozen reports have emerged recounting utility of the MinION for de novo sequencing of viral, bacterial, and eukaryotic genomes.”.

In March 2016 the company announced a chemistry upgrade to ‘R9’, using the protein nanopore CsgG in collaboration with the lab of Han Remaut (VIB/Vrije Universiteit Brussel). [44] The Company stated in a webcast that R9 is designed to improve error rates and yield. [45] In late May 2016, the R9 nanopore was launched and users have reported high performance levels with the upgraded flow cells. [24] Early reports on social media report high levels of '1D' accuracy (sequencing one strand of the duplex DNA), [25] '2D' accuracy (sequencing both the template and complement strand) [26] and assembled accuracy. [27]

Internet of Living Things

Oxford Nanopore has worked to establish the concept of an 'Internet of Living Things', originally conceived as an 'Internet of DNA' by David Haussler, a bioinformatician based at UC Santa Cruz.[ citation needed ] In an article in Wired in 2015, Clive Brown, CTO of Oxford Nanopore noted that "future nanopore sensing devices linked to cloud based analyses could run anywhere on anything." [36]

The concept of an Internet of Living Things was referenced in a 2015 paper by Yaniv Erlich [46] describing a future of ubiquitous genomics. Erlich noted that "multiple appliances could benefit from integration with sequencing sensors, including air conditioning or the main water supply to monitor harmful pathogens. However, of all possible options, toilets may offer the best integration point.”. [47] For health-related applications he noted that "rapid sequencing at airport checkpoints might be useful to control pathogen outbreaks and offer medical assistance to affected passengers. Similarly, a portable sequencer will enable physicians to provide more accurate diagnoses in the field during humanitarian crises or in the clinic without the need to waste time by sending samples to a lab.” [48]

International Space Station mission

American astronaut Kate Rubins with a MinION sequencer on the ISS in August 2016. First-ever sequencing of DNA in space, performed by Kate Rubins on the ISS. 128f0462 sequencer 1.jpg
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. [49] The aim of the mission is to provide proof of concept for the MinION’s functionality in a microgravity environment and then explore further uses on board. It has been suggested that the ability to execute DNA sequencing in space will allow monitoring of changes in microbes in the environment or humans in response to spaceflight, and possibly aid in the detection of DNA-based life elsewhere in the universe. [50]

During the mission, ISS crew members successfully sequenced DNA from bacteria, bacteriophage and rodents from samples prepared on Earth. [51] Researchers on Earth performed synchronous ground controls to evaluate how well the MinION works in the difficult conditions. Additionally, 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. [52]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genomics</span> Discipline in genetics

Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dimensional structural configuration. In contrast to genetics, which refers to the study of individual genes and their roles in inheritance, genomics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of all of an organism's genes, their interrelations and influence on the organism. Genes may direct the production of proteins with the assistance of enzymes and messenger molecules. In turn, proteins make up body structures such as organs and tissues as well as control chemical reactions and carry signals between cells. Genomics also involves the sequencing and analysis of genomes through uses of high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to assemble and analyze the function and structure of entire genomes. Advances in genomics have triggered a revolution in discovery-based research and systems biology to facilitate understanding of even the most complex biological systems such as the brain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA sequencer</span> A scientific instrument used to automate the DNA sequencing process

A DNA sequencer is a scientific instrument used to automate the DNA sequencing process. Given a sample of DNA, a DNA sequencer is used to determine the order of the four bases: G (guanine), C (cytosine), A (adenine) and T (thymine). This is then reported as a text string, called a read. Some DNA sequencers can be also considered optical instruments as they analyze light signals originating from fluorochromes attached to nucleotides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanopore</span>

A nanopore is a pore of nanometer size. It may, for example, be created by a pore-forming protein or as a hole in synthetic materials such as silicon or graphene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanopore sequencing</span> DNA / RNA sequencing technique

Nanopore sequencing is a third generation approach used in the sequencing of biopolymers — specifically, polynucleotides in the form of DNA or RNA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA sequencing</span> Process of determining the nucleic acid sequence

DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. The advent of rapid DNA sequencing methods has greatly accelerated biological and medical research and discovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metagenomics</span> Study of genes found in the environment

Metagenomics is the study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental or clinical samples by a method called sequencing. The broad field may also be referred to as environmental genomics, ecogenomics, community genomics or microbiomics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Church (geneticist)</span> American geneticist

George McDonald Church is an American geneticist, molecular engineer, chemist, serial entrepreneur, and pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology. He is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. Through his Harvard lab Church has co-founded around 50 biotech companies pushing the boundaries of innovation in the world of life sciences and making his lab as a hotbed of biotech startup activity in Boston. In 2018, the Church lab at Harvard made a record by spinning off 16 biotech companies in one year. The Church lab works on research projects that are distributed in diverse areas of modern biology like developmental biology, neurobiology, info processing, medical genetics, genomics, gene therapy, diagnostics, chemistry & bioengineering, space biology & space genetics, and ecosystem. Research and technology developments at the Church lab have impacted or made direct contributions to nearly all "next-generation sequencing (NGS)" methods and companies. In 2017, Time magazine listed him in Time 100, the list of 100 most influential people in the world. In 2022, he was featured among the most influential people in biopharma by Fierce Pharma, and was listed among the top 8 famous geneticists of all time in human history. As of January 2023, Church serves as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Board of Sponsors, established by Albert Einstein.

Epigenomics is the study of the complete set of epigenetic modifications on the genetic material of a cell, known as the epigenome. The field is analogous to genomics and proteomics, which are the study of the genome and proteome of a cell. Epigenetic modifications are reversible modifications on a cell's DNA or histones that affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence. Epigenomic maintenance is a continuous process and plays an important role in stability of eukaryotic genomes by taking part in crucial biological mechanisms like DNA repair. Plant flavones are said to be inhibiting epigenomic marks that cause cancers. Two of the most characterized epigenetic modifications are DNA methylation and histone modification. Epigenetic modifications play an important role in gene expression and regulation, and are involved in numerous cellular processes such as in differentiation/development and tumorigenesis. The study of epigenetics on a global level has been made possible only recently through the adaptation of genomic high-throughput assays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whole genome sequencing</span> Determining nearly the entirety of the DNA sequence of an organisms genome at a single time

Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's chromosomal DNA as well as DNA contained in the mitochondria and, for plants, in the chloroplast.

Cancer genome sequencing is the whole genome sequencing of a single, homogeneous or heterogeneous group of cancer cells. It is a biochemical laboratory method for the characterization and identification of the DNA or RNA sequences of cancer cell(s).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics</span>

The Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics is a human genetics research centre of the Nuffield Department of Medicine in the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, funded by the Wellcome Trust among others.

Base calling is the process of assigning nucleobases to chromatogram peaks, light intensity signals, or electrical current changes resulting from nucleotides passing through a nanopore. One computer program for accomplishing this job is Phred, which is a widely used base calling software program by both academic and commercial DNA sequencing laboratories because of its high base calling accuracy.

In DNA sequencing, a read is an inferred sequence of base pairs corresponding to all or part of a single DNA fragment. A typical sequencing experiment involves fragmentation of the genome into millions of molecules, which are size-selected and ligated to adapters. The set of fragments is referred to as a sequencing library, which is sequenced to produce a set of reads.

David Wilson Deamer is an American biologist and Research Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Deamer has made significant contributions to the field of membrane biophysics. His work led to a novel method of DNA sequencing and a more complete understanding of the role of membranes in the origin of life.

Third-generation sequencing is a class of DNA sequencing methods currently under active development.

Transcriptomics technologies are the techniques used to study an organism's transcriptome, the sum of all of its RNA transcripts. The information content of an organism is recorded in the DNA of its genome and expressed through transcription. Here, mRNA serves as a transient intermediary molecule in the information network, whilst non-coding RNAs perform additional diverse functions. A transcriptome captures a snapshot in time of the total transcripts present in a cell. Transcriptomics technologies provide a broad account of which cellular processes are active and which are dormant. A major challenge in molecular biology is to understand how a single genome gives rise to a variety of cells. Another is how gene expression is regulated.

Clinical metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is the comprehensive analysis of microbial and host genetic material in clinical samples from patients by next-generation sequencing. It uses the techniques of metagenomics to identify and characterize the genome of bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses without the need for a prior knowledge of a specific pathogen directly from clinical specimens. The capacity to detect all the potential pathogens in a sample makes metagenomic next generation sequencing a potent tool in the diagnosis of infectious disease especially when other more directed assays, such as PCR, fail. Its limitations include clinical utility, laboratory validity, sense and sensitivity, cost and regulatory considerations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genome skimming</span> Method of genome sequencing

Genome skimming is a sequencing approach that uses low-pass, shallow sequencing of a genome, to generate fragments of DNA, known as genome skims. These genome skims contain information about the high-copy fraction of the genome. The high-copy fraction of the genome consists of the ribosomal DNA, plastid genome (plastome), mitochondrial genome (mitogenome), and nuclear repeats such as microsatellites and transposable elements. It employs high-throughput, next generation sequencing technology to generate these skims. Although these skims are merely 'the tip of the genomic iceberg', phylogenomic analysis of them can still provide insights on evolutionary history and biodiversity at a lower cost and larger scale than traditional methods. Due to the small amount of DNA required for genome skimming, its methodology can be applied in other fields other than genomics. Tasks like this include determining the traceability of products in the food industry, enforcing international regulations regarding biodiversity and biological resources, and forensics.

Korean Genome Project (KGP) is the largest Korean Genome Project which currently includes over 10,000 human genomes sequenced in Korea by April 2021. KGP was originated from the national initiative of sequencing the reference Korean and whole population genomes in 2006 by KOBIC, KRIBB and NCSRD, KRISS, Daejeon in Korea. From 2009, KGP was supported by the Genome Research Foundation and TheragenEtex to build the Variome of Koreans as well as the Korean Reference Genome (KOREF). Starting from KOREF, a consensus variome reference, providing information on millions of variants from 40 additional ethnically homogeneous genomes from the Korean Personal Genome Project was completed in 2017. Updating the technology an improved version of KOREF was then constructed using long-read sequencing data produced by Oxford Nanopore PromethION and PacBio technologies has been released showcasing newer assembly technologies and techniques. In 2022 a new chromosome-level haploid assembly of KOREF was published, assembled using Oxford Nanopore Technologies PromethION, Pacific Biosciences HiFi-CCS, and Hi-C technology.

Karen Elizabeth Hayden Miga is an American geneticist who co-leads the Telomere-to-Telomore (T2T) consortium that released fully complete assembly of the human genome in March 2022. She is an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Associate Director of Human Pangenomics at the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute. She was named as "One to Watch" in the 2020 Nature's 10 and one of Time 100’s most influential people of 2022.

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