NuProbe Announces Licensing Deal with Oxford Nanopore

NuProbe Global, a global molecular diagnostics company based in Shanghai, China and Houston, TX, has signed an agreement with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, where Oxford Nanopore has licensed NuProbe's Blocker Displacement Amplification technology globally for undisclosed consideration.

The technology combination offers the potential to combine Oxford Nanopore sequencing, which offers real-time, rapid turnaround, scalable sequencing of any length DNA or RNA fragments, with the NuProbe technique to enable greater detection sensitivities and quantification of somatic mutations at less than 5% allele frequency. This collaboration will support the expanding use of Oxford Nanopore sequencing in applications such as cancer, where targeted sequencing for the characterization of SNVs and SVs can be achieved alongside methylation analysis using small, accessible devices such as MinION and Flongle.

"NuProbe's Blocker Displacement Amplification (BDA) technology selectively suppresses PCR amplification of wildtype DNA sequences at hundreds of genomic loci," said David Zhang, Head of Innovation at NuProbe. "Thus, BDA can enhance the analytical sensitivity of nanopore sequencing, and enables mutation profiling of low-abundance variants with accuracy comparable to or better than sequencing-by-synthesis platforms ? supporting greater adoption of nanopore sequencing for oncology applications."

The companies plan to collaborate on the development of software tools to enable researchers to design bespoke and highly sensitive panels based on the technology. The goal is to enable users to analyze somatic mutations and gene fusions from tumor tissue and blood, and to be able to scale up these workflows for rapid and high throughput use in any environment.

"Improving the reach of precision medicine is the future of disease management," said Yingshuang Chai, CEO of NuProbe. "Delivering accurate, decentralized, and affordable sequencing will be a critical component of ensuring that each cancer patient receives personalized treatment that leads to the best possible outcomes."

"Simultaneous and accurate genomic analysis of both smaller mutations and larger structural variants from the same cancer patient sample could be a game-changer for oncology," said George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and a member of NuProbe's Scientific Advisory Board. "A partnership between NuProbe and Oxford Nanopore makes a lot of sense."

"Both Oxford Nanopore Technologies and NuProbe share the vision of broadening access to sequencing and genomic information, and providing novel sequence-based analyses," said Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technologies. "We look forward to working with NuProbe to explore new translational applications."

To learn more about NuProbe Blocker Displacement Amplification technology, visit www.nuprobe.com/technology.

About NuProbe Global
NuProbe is a biotech company founded by world-class scientists in 2016, building initially on several technologies exclusively licensed from Harvard University and Rice University, and financed by prestigious institutional investors such as Sequoia Capital China. NuProbe possesses a number of revolutionary molecular diagnostics technologies, and collaborates with many renowned academic institutions, medical institutions, and companies worldwide. It has sites in Houston, USA, Shanghai, China, and Suzhou, China. Learn more at www.nuprobe.com.

About Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Oxford Nanopore's goal is to enable the analysis of any living thing, by anyone, anywhere. The company has developed the world's first and only nanopore DNA sequencing platform, which is uniquely scalable from pocket-sized formats through to ultra-high throughput devices. The technology offers real-time data analysis for rapid, dynamic insights; the ability to sequence any length fragments of DNA or RNA, whether short or ultra-long, and the ability to sequence native molecules for rich data that includes real-time epigenetic data.

The technology is currently being used in 100 countries by researchers in human, plant, animal, microbiological or environmental genetics, as well as increasingly in applied market applications such as healthcare or food safety. Visit www.nanoporetech.com for more information.