Nanopore technology funding

The funds were raised by existing investors including Lansdowne Partners, IP Group and Invesco Perpetual, new undisclosed US institutions and the company’s DNA sequencing marketing partner Illumina UK.

Oxford Nanopore had previously raised £32m since its formation in 2005.

The company intends to accelerate its proprietary technology, which uses real-time electronic measurement of current through small holes (nanopores) to identify molecules of interest as they interact with the nanopore.

In addition to the development of the core platform technology, funding will be directed to the Oxford Nanopore’s lead project in DNA sequencing and early work in protein analysis. Both projects use common elements of the company’s electronic measurement technology.

The Engineer reported last year that the DNA sequencing project at Oxford Nanopore could help advance personalised medicine, a concept in which doctors use individual and genetic information to provide the best healthcare for a person.

This genetic information can only be revealed by cracking an individual’s DNA code, which is stored as four chemical bases - adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.