Oxford Nanopore launches TurBOT beta access to deliver optimised sample-to-result product, strengthening collaboration with Tecan

At the annual Nanopore Community Meeting in Houston, Oxford Nanopore will showcase progress in automation, integration and accessibility with end-to-end workflows.

Oxford Nanopore today announces the beta launch of its TurBOT sample-to-result device, developed in partnership with automation and manufacturing specialist Tecan, at its annual Nanopore Community Meeting in Houston. Beta access customers will receive their devices in in the first quarter 2024, with wider early access planned for summer 2024.

TurBOT is a benchtop solution designed to offer automated extraction, library preparation, sequencing, basecalling, and data analysis for multiple samples, all within a single device. TurBOT will enable users to perform a hands-free, simplified workflow from raw sample to analysis though an intuitive interface, eliminating manual interventions and enhancing efficiency, reducing errors, and significantly accelerating the workflow. This will not only increase throughput but also ensure reproducible and reliable results.

By collaborating with Tecan, Oxford Nanopore will draw on Tecan’s over 40 years of experience in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) to develop the benchtop solution with an integrated nanopore sequencer. This intuitive solution will allow scientists to start sequencing immediately, saving training effort and time.

The first fully automated end-to-end workflows will be compatible with the MinION for research use in bacterial microbiology and infectious diseases, followed by compatibility with the higher output P2Solo with workflows for human and cancer genomics research. This will bring streamlined, automated nanopore sequencing into the lab, enabling fully hands-off sequencing that is reliable and reproducible.

Oxford Nanopore’s technology generates information rich data including small variants, structural variants and methylation from a single experiment. This paired with the technology’s scalability and ability to deliver rapid results enables base-modification analysis to be performed alongside nucleotide sequencing on the same single read without the need to run multiple sequencing experiments. Therefore, unlike traditional technologies, such as, bisulfite sequencing, no additional complex library preparation is required, and epigenetic modification analysis can be performed across the whole genome during the experiment. Combining highly reproducible automated library preparation of short and/or long fragments and high outputs of genomic data makes it feasible to reliably identify a comprehensive map of genetic alterations, conduct accurate phasing, resolve repeated sequences, and measure DNA methylation, all in a single sequencing run.

Rosemary Sinclair Dokos, SVP, Product and Programme Management and Lakmal Jayasinghe, SVP R&D Biologics will give further product and pipeline updates at NCM. They will share news on integration of tertiary analysis, proof-of-concept improvements on homopolymers, increased accuracy.

Gordon Sanghera, CEO, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, commented:

“With TurBOT we are delighted to be able to offer our customers the ability to accelerate their genomics research with access to Oxford Nanopore's end-to-end workflows conveniently packaged into a single device. Tecan is the ideal partner for us, together with its extensive experience in bringing these solutions to market and our nanopore sequencing platform, we have created this intuitive solution that will save processing time, cost and deliver streamlined sequencing.”

Ralf Griebel, EVP, Head Partnering Business, Tecan, commented:

“At Tecan we are driven to improve people’s lives and health by scaling healthcare innovation globally. Our partnership with Oxford Nanopore is a perfect example of bringing our purpose to life. Building on our existing collaboration for high-throughput library preparation on our DreamPrep® NGS platform, the TurBOT sample-to-answer device will bring new levels of convenience and reliability to Oxford Nanopore’s customers and ultimately allow the information generated by nanopore sequencing to benefit more patients in areas such as infectious diseases and oncology.”

Register for virtual attendance at the Nanopore Community Meeting here.

Find out more about TurBOT and register your interest here.