ASeq Newsletter

ASeq Newsletter

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ASeq Newsletter
ASeq Newsletter
The Roche Nanopore Sequencer

The Roche Nanopore Sequencer

Jan 21, 2025
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ASeq Newsletter
ASeq Newsletter
The Roche Nanopore Sequencer
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An enhanced version of a high-tech outdoor laboratory in a snowy landscape, featuring more prominent nanopore sequencing devices and visible strands of DNA being analyzed. The scene includes scientists in winter gear and lab coats, focused on multiple advanced nanopore devices. Emperor and Adelie penguins are nearby, some being studied by the scientists. The DNA strands are artistically represented as glowing, floating helices in the air, emphasizing the focus on genetic research in this unique setting.

Roche have announced a webinar for the 20th of February about their new Nanopore sequencer, it looks exciting!1

Highlights are:

  • 8M sensor array.

  • 500M bases/second.

  • 15B reads in 4 hours.

  • Longer reads than traditional short read platforms.

  • Uses Xpandomers.

Summary

My detailed thoughts are below. But my high level thoughts are:

  • Very high density, high throughput

  • Cheaper fabrication than Oxford Nanopore

  • The chemistry is awful.

  • They should still buy Oxford Nanopore…

So far this is all inline with their previous presentation.

The biggest change is that is seems to be producing data? Maybe?

If so, they’ve beaten Oxford to some important density milestones. But the result is a platform that isn’t that compelling, and they should still buy Oxford Nanopore if they are serious about Nanopores2

Well Size

Oxford have used a well size in the region of 100 to 150 microns. They have proposed 40 micron wells, but not yet publicly demonstrated this.

Previously Roche showed much smaller wells, on the order of 4 microns:

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