Nanopore Startup? Lunar Biosciences
There’s a new nanopore sequencing company in town and it’s called Lunar Biosciences. If you want to be their CSO, they’re hiring!
Aside from this (and similar) job postings I can find almost nothing about Lunar Biosciences. The fact that they are hiring a CSO suggests that they may not have a firmly established technological approach…
But being backed by Fapon suggests they are at least somewhat “real”. Fapon previously backed and then acquired Sequlite. What little is publicly known about Sequlite suggests this was an optical SBS platform (like Illumina).
What will Lunar Biosciences do? Well it wouldn’t surprise me if they ended up looking similar to Qitan. Qitan’s sequencing platform appears somewhat similar to Oxford Nanopore’s (but likely somewhat lags in terms of accuracy). It’s not clear if Qitan are infringing on ONT IP, but this is likely significantly easier in China1 . However Lunar are building out their R&D in the Bay Area.
If they are pursuing an Oxford-like approach then they will need to try and build on expired IP or find work arounds. Some of the earlier pore/motion control patents (like the MspA patent) only have about 5 years to run2 and as tech development can take similar time scales perhaps they will try and wait it out.
Much as we’ve seen a new crop of SBS sequencing companies with the expiration of Illumina IP. It seems possible we’ll see a new crop of nanopore companies with the expiration of the MspA and other IP. Maybe Qitan and Lunar are the first of many to come.
Interesting times ahead!
For various reasons, but which include IP often just not being filed in China at all.
With sufficient fund they can likely engage in the own pore screening effort.