Oxford Nanopore releases update to MinKNOW™ software to accelerate basecalling analysis, further accelerating high-throughput projects, at scale

The accelerated nanopore basecaller “Dorado” is now integrated into the device software MinKNOW, to enable basecalling and broad methylation analysis in real time

Oxford Nanopore today announced the integration of an accelerated basecaller into the device software MinKNOW. These improvements enable the sequencing of approximately 2,500* human genomes a year on a PromethION 24 (at 30x, one genome per flow cell), by freeing up devices for subsequent experiments immediately. The acceleration delivers full genome information, including methylation data, at no additional cost.

The update more than doubles the basecalling speed on the Ampere class GPUs contained in the ‘A-series’ PromethION - those that are partnered with the NVIDIA A100 compute tower - to accelerate further customer's research. Users with these devices can now enjoy real-time basecalling of high quality (~Q20 Simplex) data, using the high accuracy basecalling model. The upgrade also improves speeds on historic PromethION compute infrastructure, GridION and will be included in the upcoming P2i from launch.

The Oxford Nanopore platform enables full genome characterisation of all variant types including small variants, structural variants, complex copy number variants and methylation including 5mC and 5hmC. The technology is being deployed across a broad set of applications from short cell free DNA to complete telomere-to-telomere assemblies of human and other species.

Real-time basecalling, including methylation, delivers information rich data from standard output files (FASTQ/BAM) removing the need to transfer and store larger raw data files (POD5) for standard sequencing workflows. Oxford Nanopore will continue to enable users who wish to further explore raw data to do so.

With this simplification in data management, the PromethION 24 continues to be available either through a starter pack or CapEx. In addition, ‘project packs’ are available that include more than 1,000 flow cells, and the necessary reagents, for $735,000 (in most countries). At the other end of the scale, the P2 Solo is now enabling labs to perform high output nanopore experiments with starter packs from only $10,500.

Gordon Sanghera, Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Nanopore Technologies commented:

“As we continue to deliver a significant step change in accuracy through our Q20+ chemistry roll out, we’re also determined to improve our user experience and performance. We are delighted to have integrated “Dorado” into the instrument software, available on all our devices. This improvement will accelerate all our customers research, including high-throughput, production.”

Full customer release note available on the Community here.

*With further capacity to 5000 human genomes under different experimental conditions.