Illumina, Oxford Nanopore genomics news

Illumina filed two concurrent lawsuits against Oxford Nanopore alleging that the nanopore-based sequencing company’s MinION and PromethION devices infringe patents to which Illumina has exclusive rights. Illumina alleged that MinION and PromethION infringe on U.S. Patents Nos. 8,673,550 and 9,170,230, which cover the use of Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA) as the basis for a protein nanopore sequencing system. Illumina has exclusive rights to the patents in the field of nucleic acid sequencing from the UAB Research Foundation, which managed IP for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, Ala.), and the University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.). The UAB Research Foundation and University of Washington are named as plaintiffs in the suits, which were filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Oxford Nanopore sells the hand-held MinION nanopore-based electronic sequencer and has started an early access program for its PromethION sequencer. PromethION is a larger benchtop version of MinION that offers increased throughput and real-time analyses. Oxford Nanopore has not disclosed whether the devices use M. smegmatis porins and did not respond to an inquiry. According to the district court complaint, MinION “more likely than not includes Msp porins” and PromethION includes M. smegmatis porins, based “on information and belief.” ...