Oxford Nanopore to introduce "disruptive technology" at AGBT

[GW_OK]

From In Sequence article

Oxford Nanopore plans to show DNA strand sequencing data "and other disruptive features" of its "electronics-based sensing devices" during a presentation by its chief technology officer, Clive Brown, at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference in Marco Island, Fla., on Feb. 17.

Hot damn!


ONT press release

[SeqAA]

They need to be real careful here. People are much more cautious after PacBio. All we want to hear is price, read length, raw accuracy, throughput.

What we will probably hear is marketing.

[nickloman]

Clive Brown is speaking though - "the most honest guy in sequencing" - he's always good value for money (http://www.bio-itworld.com/BioIT_Art...rown+OR+honest). I am hoping for a no holds barred talk.

[GenoMax]

This type of announcement is a great read and based on @nickloman's assessment this should be an interesting talk but the real question is would the "disruptive technology" "stick" in the long run.

[SillyPoint]

the most honest guy in sequencing

@nickloman: Clive Brown is speaking though - "the most honest guy in sequencing".

I'd think perhaps 'blunt' would be a better description .

Per @SeqAA: getting people out of their happy comfort zones to embrace a new 'disruptive' technology will be a challenge, in spite of how long we've all been waiting for this.

--TS

[GW_OK]

They need to be real careful here. People are much more cautious after PacBio. All we want to hear is price, read length, raw accuracy, throughput.

What we will probably hear is marketing.

All quite possible, and caution is most certainly warranted.

Still though, ONT's been valued at $1 Billion by analysts. I'm still not sure if that article means ONT will capture 25% market share immediately or over 5 years, which wouldn't be that great.

[ECO]

Single molecule sequencing is hard. Single molecule _anything_ is hard.

While I don't doubt they will announce something interesting, my expectations are very low.

Arguably the nature of a nanopore makes it significantly easier than what the PacBio RS does, but there are so many issues with SMS that don't even come into play in ensemble systems that I will be astounded if they release anything that is remotely competitive or compelling in 2012.

But I'd be happy to eat my words and beta test a system....

[clivey]

Tut tut ! So cynical, and as for you "SillyPoint", remember I know where you live !

[aeonsim]

Well that's certainly going to make for an interesting presentation for those lucky enough to attend AGBT. Hopefully a few people tweet it, or ONT release the presentation and or other supporting material after the presentation.

@clivey will the AGBT talk be the official announcement or is it a sneak peak for the attendees that will be followed up later this year for every one else?

[clivey]

Hi,

Joking aside.

Yesterday's PR was the announcement of ONTs product launch later this year, preceded by an early access stage.

the talk abstract is out a week from Tuesday and succinctly covers the content. very little "Marketing" in fact in the talk, just a slide at the end on pricing, specs and timelines but there will be another announcement too.

the company web site will be updated around the same time (plenty of marketing there).

I aim to talk at a major conference in Asia later this year and I hope we can do a booth at ASHG at least.

C

[GW_OK]

Joking aside.

How big is your mountain of 100kb reads?

[clivey]

No spoilers - sorry.

c.

[Joann]

Please post talk slides here...

On Feb. 17 if possible.

[BBoy]

While I don't doubt they will announce something interesting, my expectations are very low.

Same here

Arguably the nature of a nanopore makes it significantly easier than what the PacBio RS does,

Define "easier". Easier to achieve higher raw accuracy... yes. Easier to achieve reasonable multiplexing... not only no, but hell no. At least not for as long as they are using biological nanopores. And solid state nanopores are not on the radar, not for 2012, and probably not for 2015 either.

but there are so many issues with SMS that don't even come into play in ensemble systems

The reverse is also true. Ensemble sequencing has no hope of achieving the multiplexing required by those who envision a geometric progression in sequencing "capability", whatever that means to you. Optical methods are dead at few um pixel pitch, and interestingly IonTorrent's electrical methods are not far behind in terms of serious limitations on the ability to scale down the sensel size (they rely on, essentially, electrochemistry to achieve the pH swing, and as the Li-ion guys proved a long time ago, electrochemistry's scaling laws are UGLY) . If we are ever to get to the sub-$100 genome it WILL be some form of single-molecule technology, but probably not one of the current contenders.

that I will be astounded if they release anything that is remotely competitive or compelling in 2012.

My predictions: long read lengths, on par or beyond what PacBio can achieve; raw accuracy better than PacBio, but probably still in the low-mid 90s; poor data output per rack, with high consumable costs due to relatively low multiplexing per chip... which is why they will talk about strand sequencing rather than full genome sequencing.

But I'd be happy to eat my words and beta test a system....

I will just be happy to eat my words and publicly admit that I am full of it. If they indeed introduce something groundbreaking it will be an exciting time for all us gearheads. However, the history of electronics technology (specifically microprocessors) is full of eagerly awaited transformational technologies that turn out to be merely tweaks that do not outperform the status quo in any significant way to matter. Anyone remember that Transmeta was expected to put Intel out of business... until they released their product?

[aeonsim]

What would be nice when they do release the product would be a service provider offering the service from the get go (or ONT it's self even if limited to a single sample) at a reasonable price so those with enough budget can get some real data derived from our own samples to have a look at.

At a bare minimum it'd be nice to get a public data release (when the system is released or even before) for a prokaroyte (maybe one of the strains ion torrent and illumina released) and a mammal to allow a wide variety of people to have a play and get a feel for the data.