Advantages of real-time sequencing

Nanopore sequencing is the only sequencing technology capable of providing insights in real time, which offers several advantages compared to traditional methods.

On-demand & real-time adjustment

Real-time insights enable the user to adjust their experiment at any stage. For example, during a sequencing run you might identify that you won’t have enough data, or your sample quality is low. Users can stop existing runs or add additional flow cells, without causing disruption.

The ability to add flow cells on demand means that users do not have to wait for sufficient samples to start a run — they can use between one to five GridION, or one to 48 PromethION Flow Cells initially, and then additional flow cells as samples become available.

Find out more about flow cells
On-demand real-time sequencing
Run Until graphic

Run until

Run until, as the name suggests, allows users to run their experiment until a predetermined parameter is met. For example: the system may process the sample until a minimum of tenfold read depth over specified regions of interest has been seen, until a specific mutation has been observed in a sample, or until enough sequence data has been collected to reliably assemble a sample against a reference. As there is no fixed run time, the experiment is defined by the user — not by the machine.

Learn more about basecalling

Increase speed of result, such as pathogen detection

Real-time data streaming means rapid access to time-critical results. Unlike traditional methods where analysis can only be done once sequencing is complete, nanopore sequencing enables initial insights to be gathered as soon as sequencing starts. This is ideal in situations such as pathogen identification or looking for a microbial resistance gene. The sequencing run can be left to continue to provide greater confidence in your results.

Pathogen detection workflow

Longer run, greater confidence

Nanopore sequencing is dependent on single molecules of DNA/RNA passing through thousands of nanopores in parallel. As soon as DNA/RNA passes through the pore the data becomes available. A longer sequencing run enables more molecules of DNA/RNA to be sequenced, increasing the likelihood of identifying low abundance sequences within a sample. This results in greater confidence in the result and a greater range of analysis. This is particularly important for applications such as detection of low abundance fusion genes and transcripts, identification of low frequency variants, alleles and biomarkers, as well as differentiating metagenomic communities.

Longer run GIF

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