science

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Oxford Nanopore Technologies is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oxford Nanopore Technologies rather than just read about it. In short: Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc is a UK-based company which develops and sells nanopore-based molecular sensing technology for the real-time analysis of DNA and RNA. Its platform includes sequencing devices, consumables and software used across research, applied and clinical markets.

Key takeaways

Oxford Nanopore Technologies belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oxford Nanopore Technologies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oxford Nanopore Technologies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc is a UK-based company which develops and sells nanopore-based molecular sensing technology for the real-time analysis of DNA and RNA. Its platform includes sequencing devices, consumables and software used across research, applied and clinical markets. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

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. The company made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on 30 September 2021, under the ticker ONT. In March 2016 the company announced a chemistry upgrade to its nanopore sequencing product 'R9', using a protein nanopore in collaboration with the laboratory of Han Remaut (VIB/Vrije Universiteit Brussel). The company stated in a webcast that R9 is designed to improve error rates and yield.

In December 2025, the company announced that Francis Van Parys would succeed Gordon Sanghera as CEO. Prior to joining Oxford Nanopore, he was President and CEO of Radiometer and held senior leadership roles at Cytiva and GE Healthcare.

Products

The main products of Oxford Nanopore are:

MinION: this harmonica-sized portable protein nanopore sequencing USB device has been commercially available since May 2015. GridION: this desktop device has been commercially available since March 2017. The device processes up to five MinION flow cells and enables generation of up to 100 Gb of data per run. PromethION: a desktop device for sequencing of native DNA or RNA samples. The device contains channels for 144,000 nanopores (in comparison to MinION’s 512) and delivers up to 290 Gb of data per flow cell. PromethION 24: this device is a nanopore sequencing platform released in 2019 for DNA and RNA sequencing projects. It 24 flow cells which can be run independently. EPI2ME: a procut for customers with limited computational experience to process data without high-performance computing resources and programming expertise. 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, Agricultural science and scientific research.

References

External links Oxford Nanopore Technologies Website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oxford Nanopore Technologies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oxford Nanopore Technologies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oxford Nanopore Technologies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oxford Nanopore Technologies

In research: Oxford Nanopore Technologies appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oxford Nanopore Technologies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oxford Nanopore Technologies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2021 initial public offerings, British companies established in 2005, Companies based in Oxford, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oxford Nanopore Technologies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Oxford Nanopore Technologies” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Oxford Nanopore Technologies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oxford Nanopore Technologies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oxford Nanopore Technologies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oxford Nanopore Technologies in simple terms?

Why does Oxford Nanopore Technologies matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oxford Nanopore Technologies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oxford Nanopore Technologies.