There hasn't been a peep out of Oxford Nanopore Technologies since the company announced in February that its DNA strand sequencing nanopore method is working and that it is developing it commercially. "When will nanopores actually hit the market?" asks Keith Robison at his Omics! Omics! blog.
A recent review article on nanopore sequencing by Meni Wanunu at Northeastern University questions "whether the remaining technical hurdles can be overcome to create a workable, easily produced commercial device," according to the publisher.
In a LinkedIn forum, DNA sequencing veteran Tim Hunkapillar ponders whether "it just may be that nanopore sequencers are the perpetual motion machines of our age."
But for Robison, "a more apt comparison would be to the world of nuclear power, and the question is whether nanopores are more akin to nuclear fission or nuclear fusion."