NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - Sequenom said yesterday that it has exclusively licensed technology from Harvard University that it will use to develop a nanopore-based sequencing platform that will be faster and cheaper than currently available technologies.
The technology, which is able to detect a single strand of DNA as it passes through a nanopore, was developed by Amit Meller, an associate professor at Boston University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Meller invented the technology while at Harvard’s Rowland Institute.
Sequenom said it expects the technology to enable DNA sequencing, as well as whole-genome genotyping and RNA and epigenetic analysis.
Harry Stylli, CEO of Sequenom, said that the proposed system will be “complementary” to the company’s MassArray genotyping platform. "Near term we expect this nanopore technology to deliver large-scale genotyping solutions and long term we believe it has the potential to provide a commercially viable, rapid, sub-thousand dollar human genome sequencing solution," he said.
Financial terms of the license agreement include up-front fees, milestone payments, and royalties from product sales. Further details were not provided.