Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Ltd is pleased to announce a new agreement to strengthen the Company’s
collaboration with the University of Oxford. The Company will fund research
in the laboratories of Professor Hagan Bayley and will partner exclusively with
the University to develop revolutionary products for molecular analysis from
these new discoveries.
Research projects within the Bayley group include methods for the direct sequencing
of single stranded DNA (ssDNA). This and other nanopore sequencing techniques
may offer substantial performance benefits over currently-available sequencing
technologies through improved cost and speed.
“We are delighted to have signed this new agreement to broaden and extend
the collaboration between the University of Oxford and Oxford Nanopore Technologies,”
said Dr Gordon Sanghera, CEO. “Our core technology is compatible with
a broad range of nanopore sensors and so this collaboration enhances the potential
of our system, from evolving our first generation of DNA sequencing technology
to exploring new applications such as protein sensing.”
Oxford Nanopore is developing a revolutionary platform technology for direct,
electrical detection and analysis of single molecules, with a lead application
of DNA sequencing. The Company was founded in 2005 on the science of Professor
Hagan Bayley of the University of Oxford and has since formed a series of collaborations
with other leading institutions including Harvard University and the University
of California, Santa Cruz. Oxford Nanopore has licensed or owns more than 200
patents and patent applications that cover all aspects of nanopore sensing including
DNA sequencing.
Oxford Nanopore’s modular instrumentation may be combined with different
types of nanopore sensor for the analysis of a range of single molecules. The
Company’s ‘exonuclease sequencing’ method combines a processive
enzyme with a protein nanopore for the identification of individual bases cleaved
sequentially from a DNA strand. ‘Strand sequencing’ is a method
to identify bases on an intact strand of DNA as it passes through a protein
nanopore. Future generations of nanopore sensing technology may use ‘solid-state’
nanopores, holes in synthetic materials.
Sequencing single stranded DNA
Current challenges in sequencing of ssDNA include mechanisms of controlling
the translocation of ssDNA through the nanopore and the accurate identification
of individual DNA bases on the strand as it passes through the pore. The Bayley
laboratory continues to research these methods. Recently published progress
includes a 2009 PNAS publication showing that all four DNA bases could be distinguished
in immobilized DNA strands and 2010 Angewandte Chemie publication that used
two recognition sites in a single protein nanopore to provide additional data
for DNA base identification. In a September 2010 Nano Letters publication the
group showed that selective mutagenesis of the alpha hemolysin nanopore can
weaken or strengthen recognition points within the pore when aiming to identify
single nucleobases on ssDNA and can improve the discrimination between the four
bases. This methodology provides a structure-function relationship for the enhancement
of performance of hemolysin nanopores for DNA sequencing applications.
Array chip for high-throughput single molecule analysis
Oxford Nanopore’s proprietary technology allows parallel measurement
of multiple individual channels on a single silicon chip. Each channel measures
individual analyses of single molecules using a protein nanopore. In order to
provide high-performance single molecule analyses, the technology can therefore
be scaled up for the concurrent measurement of multiple channels, from hundreds
to tens of thousands of channels depending on the application.
The proprietary array chip creates lipid bilayers across the surface of multiple
microwells on a silicon chip and measures the signal from single protein nanopores
embedded in the bilayer in individual wells. The Company also has active collaborations
in the development of a future generation of ‘solid-state’ nanopores,
holes in synthetic materials.
Protein analysis
The Bayley laboratory is also researching methods of building and using ligand-nanopore
complexes for the analysis of a variety of analytes including proteins. Oxford
Nanopore recently announced the start of a research programme in protein analysis,
which can be performed on the company’s core technology platform.