This article was originally published June 21.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies is expanding its premises and is opening a location in Cambridge, UK, that will focus on informatics, the company said this week.
The firm is adding 7,000 square feet to its headquarters in the Oxford Science Park, adding to 10,000 square feet of existing labs and offices. The new informatics facility will be based at Chesterford Research Park in Cambridge.
"The Oxford facility allows us to expand R&D, production, and quality functions at our headquarters," said Gordon Sanghera, Oxford Nanopore's CEO, in a statement. He said the firm opened an office in Cambridge, where the European Bioinformatics Institute is located, in order to attract talented informaticians. "Because the European informatics community has such strong links to Cambridge, we believe it will be critical to have a facility there to support our current and future informatics staff."
The company is also expanding its staff, with 18 current openings in nanopore chemistry, sensor chip technology, mechanical engineering, informatics, and operations, according to its website. These include the position of vice president of manufacturing/operations, whose role it will be to "drive the expansion from existing internal and external pilot manufacturing capabilities, scaling through a high-growth phase, to commercial launch of the GridIon system," the company's platform for electronic single-molecule analysis.
The company has not yet disclosed a timeline for the commercial launch of the GridIon system.