Oxford Nanopore Technologies was spun out from the University of Oxford in 2005. Until May 2008, the company was named Oxford NanoLabs Ltd. Oxford Nanopore employs a team of 100 people including scientists, engineers and informaticians based mainly at its headquarters in Oxford, UK.
The company was founded by Dr Gordon Sanghera, Dr Spike Willcocks and Professor Hagan Bayley, who is currently Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Oxford, in partnership with IP Group plc. Since 2008 the Company has also been working with a wider
Technology Advisory Board including collaborators at Harvard, Boston University and the University of California Santa Cruz. Oxford Nanopore has a strong
intellectual property position for the use of nanopores in molecular analysis and specifically DNA sequencing.
In 2005,
Dr Gordon Sanghera joined Oxford Nanopore as CEO. Gordon brings his experience of combining biological and electronic technologies; he previously delivered blood glucose sensing products to the market, a technology that has transformed the lives of diabetes patients worldwide. Gordon now leads an experienced management team towards the development and commercialisation of a new gold-standard in DNA sequencing products.
In 2008,
Dr John Milton and
Clive G Brown joined the executive management team, bringing previous experience having developed the current world-leading DNA sequencing system at Solexa.
In July 2009, the Company relocated to the
Oxford Science Park. Our new premises at Edmund Cartwright House were inaugurated by the UK Science and Innovation Minister, Lord Drayson. In 2011,
an additional 7,000 square feet on the Oxford Science Park was opened and a new Cambridge office was also opened as an informatics outstation.
Various
publications by our collaborators have noted key advances in specific aspects of the technology and the Company provides some
information about the GridION platform and the ways in which it is different to existing molecular analysis technologies. The key properties of nanopore sensing; a direct, electronic signal that is processed in real time, translate to a range of benefits in addition to yield and speed. This includes the ability to simplify workflows by performing experimental analyses in real time as the experiment progresses, so that the user may
Run Until their biological question has been answered.
Further news about the Company's development timelines is anticipated in 2012.
To date, the Company has raised nearly £75 million in six rounds of private funding, from a combination of private and institutional investors.
Seed funding was obtained in two rounds, from
IP Group in 2005. In June 2006 the company raised £7.75m, and in March 2008 the company raised a further £10m.
In January 2009 the Company announced an $18 million (£11.9 million)
investment from Illumina and
additional £2.1 million in private investment.
In February 2010 Oxford Nanopore raised £17.4 million from existing investors and new, undisclosed US-based investors and in April 2011 the Company raised £25 million fron existing and new institutional and independent investors based in the UK and US.
