Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc

Oxford Nanopore was founded in 2005 to develop a disruptive, electronic, single-molecule sensing system based on nanopore science. The first product, MinION, was introduced into early access in 2014 and made commercially available in 2015. The scaled-up GridION was commercially launched in 2017 and PromethION in 2018, with the largest device, the PromethION 48, first shipped in 2019. Flongle, the adapter for MinION/GridION for rapid, cheaper, smaller tests was launched in 2019. The Company has a rich development pipeline that includes solutions to enable any user, anywhere, including the mobile-phone-compatible SmidgION and low cost, portable sample prep Ubik.

The rich history of research and development that has resulted in nanopore sequencing is outlined below.  The Company now has more than 1,400 patents and patent applications across 200 patent families, with hundreds generated by internal R&D, and complemented with key in-licenced IP from collaborators. Find out more about the intellectual property portfolio .

Timeline

From an idea, to fundamental science, to a technology platform and working chemistry, and onward to a working, integrated technology

The concept

In June 1989, Professor David Deamer - at the time at UC Davis - was driving when it occurred to him that a protein channel might be incorporated into the membrane of a liposome, and that the resulting channel might accommodate individual nucleotides - the small components of DNA.  Professor Deamer thought that each nucleotide could potentially produce a specific blockade of ionic current as it passed through the channel, a concept that was later shown by Professor Hagan Bayley.  For two years, this idea lay undiscussed - and in Professor Deamer's notebook - until a discussion in 1991 with Professor Dan Branton, visiting from Harvard University.