Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc

Mayo Clinic and Oxford Nanopore announce collaboration

19 October 2023

Mayo Clinic and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (LSE: ONT) (the "Company" or "Oxford Nanopore"), the company delivering a new generation of nanopore-based molecular sensing technology, today unveiled a multi-year joint development collaboration to develop new clinical tests for diseases and improve patient care.

Mayo Clinic and Oxford Nanopore have identified several areas of development, spanning a wide breadth of applications from translational research in human genetics to detection of genetic predisposition to cancer.

"We are proud to work with Mayo Clinic to support the development of new tests that will assist clinical decision-making and improve patient lives. This collaboration shows that Oxford Nanopore's technology is ready to support development and validation of assays for clinical care, and it underscores our maturity and long-term vision to transform this space. We have long held the ambition to become a utility player in world-renowned, global clinical centers of excellence, and this is our first step toward achieving that vision," says Gordon Sanghera, CEO, Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

Nanopore sequencing is well positioned to serve Mayo Clinic's goals of improving testing in some of the hardest-to-characterise conditions. The ability to sequence any-length fragments of DNA - from short to long and ultra-long - and examine methylation in real time offers the potential to provide clinicians with a more complete picture of an evolving cancer genome quickly and accurately. Methylation is particularly important, as this typically requires bisulfite conversions and additional cost yet is key to unmasking crucial insights.

"Pairing Oxford Nanopore's innovative nanopore sequencing with Mayo Clinic's world-class clinical and diagnostic testing knowledge further helps advance patient care," says Bobbi Pritt, M.D., interim chair of Mayo Clinic's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. "We are excited to collaborate with Oxford Nanopore on this effort to develop new clinical tests that will provide the right answers for patients at the right time."

The collaboration activities will take place on Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota.

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For further information, please contact:

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc

Investors:          [email protected]

Media:              [email protected]

Teneo (communications adviser to the Company)

Tom Murray, Olivia Peters

+44 (0) 20 7353 4200

[email protected]

Mayo Clinic Media Contact: Suzanne Ferguson, [email protected]

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education, and research, and to providing compassion, expertise, and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit  Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc:

Oxford Nanopore Technologies' goal is to bring the widest benefits to society through enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere. The company has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology that is currently used for real-time, high-performance, accessible, and scalable analysis of DNA and RNA.  The technology is used in more than 120 countries, to understand the biology of humans, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses and environments as well as to understand diseases such as cancer.  Oxford Nanopore's technology also has the potential to provide broad, high impact, rapid insights in a number of areas including healthcare, food and agriculture. 

For more information please visit: www.nanoporetech.com

Forward-looking statements

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements. For example, statements regarding expected revenue growth and profit margins are forward-looking statements. Phrases such as "aim", "plan", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "target", and similar expressions of a future or forward-looking nature should also be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and by definition address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Our results could be affected by macroeconomic conditions, the COVID-19 pandemic, delays in our receipt of components or our delivery of products to our customers, suspensions of large projects and/or acceleration of large products or accelerated adoption of pathogen surveillance. These or other uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements.