Accelrys said this week that it will develop software to enable real-time analyses of experimental data produced by the Oxford Nanopore single-molecule analysis system.
Under the terms of the agreement, Accelrys and Oxford Nanopore will develop "nanopore-specific" workflows for Accelrys's Pipeline Pilot that will enable secondary and higher-level data analysis for the Oxford Nanopore DNA sequencing system at the time of its commercial release. Accelrys said that its software will be the "preferred and supported" informatics solution for the sequencing platform.
Oxford Nanopore has not yet disclosed the commercialization timeline for its sequencing platform. As reported by BioInform's sister publication In Sequence, the company so far has about 15 of its so-called GridIon platforms in use internally and another 20 under assembly (IS 3/15/2011).
The system, which the company said is currently in late-stage development, is intended to serve as a generic platform that will support a range of nanopore sequencing methods as well as protein analysis.
The data-analysis pipelines under development will include Accelrys' NGS Collection for Pipeline Pilot, which the firm launched last month (BI 02/25/2011).
Clive Brown, Oxford Nanopore’s chief technology officer, said in a statement that Accelrys’ software is "uniquely placed to deliver nanopore-specific workflow features … in an accessible and versatile way appropriate for a broad range of users from individual researchers to large scale installations."
While initially focused on DNA sequencing, the partners plan to address other applications, including the analysis of protein data generated on Oxford Nanopore's GridIon instrumentation.