Nanopore DNA sequencing
A nanopore sequencer reads DNA or RNA by feeding a single strand through a protein pore set in a membrane with an electric current across it. Each letter of the genetic code disturbs the current in its own way, and software turns the signal back into the sequence.
Oxford Nanopore, 19 Feb 2025How far from your life: You can get it now, though it may not be common yet.
Company-reportedFrom lab to your life
Why it’s on step 4
- 1Lab discovery
- 2Working prototype
- 3Real-world testing
- 4Approved or on sale
- 5Everyday life
The rule
A regulator approved or cleared it where approval applies (the FDA, the EMA, a CE mark), or it is sold to the public or to customers beyond a trial.
- Oxford Nanopore released its first nanopore sequencing device, the MinION. Oxford Nanopore, 19 Feb 2025
The short version
What you need to know
- Why it matters
Handheld sequencers can move testing out of the lab to a patient's bedside, and have been taken into outbreaks to track viruses.
UK Research and Innovation (MRC)- How small
The hole in the pore is about one nanometer wide: a billionth of a meter.
UK Research and Innovation (MRC)- Is it really nano?
Truly nano
The reading happens as DNA passes through a hole about a nanometer wide; the nanopore is the whole idea.
UK Research and Innovation (MRC)- Where you’ll find it
In research and public health labs, on devices from pocket-sized to benchtop.
Oxford Nanopore, 19 Feb 2025- Who’s behind it
Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a 2005 spin-out from the University of Oxford
On the record
Every step, dated
Newest first. Company-reported means the only source so far is the company itself.
- Field trial
A UK and Brazil team used the handheld MinION to sequence the Zika virus directly from patient samples during the outbreak.
UK Research and Innovation (MRC) - On saleCompany-reported
Oxford Nanopore released its first nanopore sequencing device, the MinION.
Oxford Nanopore, 19 Feb 2025
Who makes it
The companies
- ONTLSEOxford Nanopore Technologies
Makes DNA and RNA sequencers that read genetic code through engineered protein nanopores.
We track:Nanopore sequencing
Sources
Where every line comes from
Each source with the passage, word for word, that backs what we wrote.
- Oxford Nanopore, 19 Feb 2025
This means that as a strand of DNA or RNA moves through a nanopore, this electrical current is disrupted.
- UK Research and Innovation (MRC)
The handheld MinION sequencer makes it possible to move diagnostic testing from the laboratory
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