Oxford Nanopore has grabbed $50.8 million in a fresh round of financing as the U.K. company advances plans to compete in the DNA sequencing game with small device that could expand applications of the technology. The company has gained wide attention in the genomics field for its technology that could provide real-time electronic analysis of single molecules.
The company announced that the financing has brought the total amount raised to about $170 million, and the latest influx of investment came via a private placement.
"This round of funding, nearly all of which comes from existing investors, will support a range of corporate development activities, including the development of our commercial infrastructure, expansion of our manufacturing function and further R&D for our DNA/RNA sequencing and protein/miRNA analysis applications," stated Dr. Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore. "We will also continue to maintain our leadership position in nanopore innovation through maintenance and expansion of our broad intellectual property portfolio."
The company's device, dubbed the MinION, is designed to rapidly sequence samples of DNA and turn around results in short order. The device has gained media attention in February because, for starters, it plugs into a PC and comes at the bargain price of $900. Oxford Nanopore plans to release the product commercially in the second half of this year.
- here's the release
- see Bio-IT World's article