Oxford Nanopore Technologies
("Oxford Nanopore") today announced its participation in the Revolutionary
Approaches and Devices for Nucleic Acid analysis project (READNA). The newly-launched
READNA consortium includes researchers from 16 academic and industrial institutions
and will receive €12m in funding over four years, under the European Union's
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
As part of the consortium, Oxford Nanopore will receive €730,000 in grant
funding to support the development of its nanopore technology into an early
exonuclease/nanopore DNA sequencing system. The Company will also work on projects
to integrate protein nanopores and solid-state materials for the further progression
of nanopore sequencing, the development of a new technique that uses nanopores
for genome-wide methylation studies and the development of droplet-based bilayer
arrays for rapid, multiplexed genotyping.
Oxford Nanopore will collaborate closely with researchers from the University
of Oxford, including Professor Hagan Bayley's Chemical Biology group, the Biological
Physics group and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. The University
will receive €2m to support READNA projects.
"We are proud to be part of the READNA project, which includes representatives
from Europe's leading research institutions and developers of genomic
technologies," said Dr Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore. "The
consortium aims to revolutionise nucleic acid analysis. Our role as the developer
of a new generation of sequencing technology, based on nanopores, is critical
to the project. With support also being given to our academic collaborators,
we believe we are in the best position to deliver a meaningful improvement in
sequencing technology with our label-free, single-molecule nanopore system."
The READNA consortium aims to revolutionise the analysis of nucleic acids by
the improvement of existing methods and the development of new technologies.
Specific goals of the project include:
- Development of a new generation of rapid and cost effective sequencing methodologies
- Single molecule detection of DNA molecules in nanosystems using nanopores
and nanochannels
- Improvement of elements of existing sequencing systems
- Methods for the detection and the enrichment of rare mutations from peripheral
patient samples
- Combining RNA and DNA analysis in a single analytical device
- Development of methods for genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation at a
high resolution
- Development of cost-effective high resolution HLA typing
- Development of assays for effective high-resolution genotyping of copy
number variations
- Overall, the project aims to progress towards a target of sequencing a
complete human genome for €1000; the promotion of new sequencing technologies
is central to this goal.