Scalability without compromise
When people talk about ‘scalability’ in sequencing, it’s often framed as a trade-off — as if flexible, affordable technology couldn’t possibly support high-throughput, high-confidence science. But in reality, Oxford Nanopore technology is already powering population-scale studies, where cost, scale, and robustness all matter. At the same time, smaller labs are scaling workflows efficiently with single devices and low-cost, pay-as-you-go flow cells.
From the pocket-sized MinION to the high-output PromethION, the fully scalable Oxford Nanopore platform adapts to the question at hand, delivering genetic and epigenetic insights in real time, whilst avoiding the capital burden or infrastructure demands of legacy technologies.
In this edition of Real Talk with Researchers, you’ll hear directly from teams who’ve scaled in every direction, proving that nanopore sequencing delivers at any level — without compromising accuracy or robustness.
Alimat Oyawoye & Tilda Tierney: scalable multiomics research in human genetics
Alimat and Tilda work for the NIHR BioResource (UK), where they are gaining unprecedented insights from human genomics research at scale using our human variant calling workflow, including intuitive data analysis with EPI2ME. Thanks to PromethION, they’ve scaled from a pilot study to now sequencing 384 human genomes per week. You can learn more about their research in our case study about the team's presentation at London Calling 2025.
Javeria Aijaz: paediatric leukaemia classification in low-resource settings
Nanopore technology has allowed Javeria to condense multiple processes into a single technique for comprehensive cancer research sample characterisation. Javeria tells us that a major draw of nanopore sequencing is the low capital and maintenance costs compared to other technologies. Her team at Indus Hospital in Pakistan uses the MinION device, and they love the fast turnaround time that comes with running a small batch.
Kim Billingsley: large-scale Alzheimer’s disease research
At the National Institute of Health (USA) the scalability that Kim needs for her research wouldn’t have been possible without nanopore technology. Her team are looking at structural variants (SVs) in diverse populations to uncover population-specific variants in Alzheimer’s disease. For an update on their project, here’s Kim’s talk at London Calling 2025.
Joanne Trinh: scaling from single samples to large cohorts
Since 2018, Joanne has progressed from using the MinION to the PromethION as her research has grown. Her goal is to build a large, diverse database of whole-genome sequences from people with Parkinson’s disease, and she believes that the high-throughput capabilities of PromethION will make this possible.
Diana Koh Min Yi: improving the diversity of population genomics data
Many population-scale studies exist, but their Western focus skews the data and overlooks vital insights about Asian populations. Diana is working as part of the PRECISE programme in Singapore, where they have six PromethION devices, allowing them to perform high-output, high-throughput whole-genome sequencing with a turnaround time of three days. Sequencing at this scale means they could complete an SV catalogue of 10,000 samples within 12 months. The ultimate aim is to enable disease variant identification before the onset of symptoms in an individual.
PromethION enables flexible, scalable, on-demand sequencing
In this short video, we hear from researchers at Genomics England (UK), Johns Hopkins University (USA), University of Tubigen (Germany), and The National Institute of Health (USA) about how the PromethION device is changing the game for large-scale sequencing projects.
Merel Damen: scaling up to be future-ready
BaseClear are a longstanding Oxford Nanopore service provider in The Netherlands. In this case study, we hear how they expanded their Oxford Nanopore sequencing capacity, scaled up their infrastructure and workflows, and built a future-ready service capable of supporting advanced metagenomic discovery at scale.
Curious to learn more? Find out how you can gain accurate, multi-dimensional insights — in one go.
If you enjoyed this blog, check out another in our Real Talk with Researchers series: what does accuracy mean to you?
Oxford Nanopore Technologies products are not intended for use for health assessment or to diagnose, treat, mitigate, cure, or prevent any disease or condition.
