Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)

Type: Company (sequencing technology) Ticker: ONT (London Stock Exchange)

One half of the long-read sequencing duopoly. ONT sequences DNA/RNA by passing single molecules through protein nanopores and reading the ionic-current disruption — uniquely enabling portable (e.g. MinION) and ultra-long, direct-RNA, native-methylation reads. Its historical weakness was raw accuracy; the R10.4 flow cell / kit 14 chemistry plus improved basecalling now push ONT to up to ~99% read accuracy, closing the gap with PacBio and short-read Illumina.

Key Contributions

• ~99% accuracy at long read length — R10.4 / kit 14 chemistry and modern basecalling bring nanopore reads to near-Illumina accuracy while retaining ultra-long reads. (SCLR-seq review)
• Clinically viable rapid WGS — Ultrarapid ONT whole-genome sequencing has reached single-cell long-read and rapid-diagnosis use; direct-RNA and methylation calling are differentiators vs PacBio. (SCLR-seq review)

Mentioned In

• Long-Read Sequencing — ONT is half the duopoly and the accuracy story.

Related Entities

• PacBio — the other half of the long-read duopoly (HiFi / circular consensus).