Introducing GridION X5

Today we announced the launch of the GridION X5, a new system that can drive up to five MinION Flow Cells and process all the data produced within a single benchtop device. GridION X5 can be used to offer nanopore sequencing as a service.

Why GridION X5? Recent releases for the portable MinION device, such as the R9.4 nanopore and the software release MinKNOW 1.4, have enabled yields of more than 20Gb from single MinION Flow Cell in internal experiments.

As the community of MinION users starts to reap the benefits of these releases, we are also preparing to release PromethION Flow Cells that are designed to yield up to six times the Gb of a MinION Flow Cell , so that the entire PromethION can yield Terabases of data.  GridION fills a gap between MinION and PromethION.

The performance of MinION has improved 40-fold since its first introduction and data processing requirements at the newest high throughputs are now beginning to challenge the average PC.  The GridION will adapt the MinION technology into a small benchtop production sequencer with the advantage of full on-board compute capable of generating 100GB of data over 48 hours.

This capacity is completely controlled by the user.  All five flow cells can be dedicated to one project, or each flow cell can be used to sequence different samples. As with all nanopore sequencing there is no fixed run time.

PromethION remains a high capacity, on-demand sequencer suitable for users with larger projects or who wish to process large numbers of samples.