Local basecalling now available, enabling MinION usage in the field

Users of the MinION have traditionally been able to make use of Oxford Nanopore’s cloud-based analysis platform, EPI2ME, to basecall and analyse their data in real time. Sometimes, however, a constant internet connection is not available – for example, when people want to use the MinION in the field, increasingly common for this portable device.  This can mean delay in the analysis, where people performing DNA sequencing in the field have conducted basecalling later on when fully connected.

To avoid these delays for field-based sequencing, Oxford Nanopore has now released local basecalling on the user’s laptop, enabling quicker analyses in remote locations.

Local basecalling is available for 1D sequencing – where one strand of the DNA is sequenced, rather than 2D sequencing where both the template and complement strands are sequenced. 1D sequencing has been enabled by the release of the R9 nanopore, which gives higher accuracy 1D sequence data.  1D sequencing is performed with the recently-released Rapid Sequencing Kit, which allows library preparation in under 10 minutes and with minimal equipment.

Local basecalling has been enabled in a new release of MinKNOW, the software that is used to run the MinION.

For nanopore community members, you can find out more about this release here.